Of Dreams and Reality
by AngelsListener
Summary: My name is Samantha Porter. I woke up this morning thinking I would have a normal day in high school and be one step closer to ending my final year there. Instead strange black hole appeared before me as I was walking to my class and pulled me into it! Now I have awakened in this strange ally way with no idea where I am and the buildings look like they came out of the anime Naruto.
1. A Sudden Begining

1/16/2016- Hello readers! This is AngelsListener, I just wanted to leave a note for the few new or old people returning or just begining to read this story. Updates will usually be on the weekends every week; but if there isn't and update for a new chapter I will be editing older chapters to give this story more flesh. I will admit that I sort of put chapters that are ' hot off the press' onto the website before their completely finished only because I am trying to meet the deadline. When there is an update on a chapter I will actually put the date here in the author note then inform you what information was updated.

I also want to let you know that I'm not a perfect writer, I make mistakes like everyone else whether it would be from not adding more detail to spelling and punctuation errors. I do most of my editing myself and I do apologize for not taking more time on some of these chapters.

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I awake with sudden fright as I try to piece together what had happened to me. I found myself looking at a light tan building that looked to be solid stone. Around me I found that I was along the side of a street with an entrance to my left and right.

" Where am I?" I found myself asking aloud. As I look around from my place on the dirt street. I notice that the sky is an afternoon blue and that no clouds littered sky unlike this morning. The streets beyond this ally way do not seem to have any real roads and just cut through the tall buildings I could see.

As I looked around I remembered what had happened earlier today. 'I was walking to school and was already on the premises when…' I couldn't even think of the word for the strange dark hole that appeared out of nowhere.

" Well," I say out loud. I work myself up despite the annoying weight of my backpack. " Whatever it was I'm here, where ever here is." A man walks up through the alley on my left and I get up from the ground to ask the man.

" Excuse me sir, could you tell me where I am?" the man looks slightly surprised and answers me. " Your in the city of Konoha." I blink while furrowing my brow and say

" That can't be right," I quickly thank the man and he continues on his way where ever that may be. ' Konoha doesn't exist, why did the man tell me that?' I remember that the city came from a TV show called Naruto. But how could I have ended up there? I found myself thinking that if this really was the place I could tell by looking for the Great Hokage Faces. I decide to leave my alley way for the first time to see where exactly where I would need to go so I left out of the right side of the ally street and find myself stunned by how low tech everything is.

Instead of cars in the streets people walked where ever they wanted besides making way for the wagon coming down the road. The buildings looked to have electricity as there were black cables that hung around the sides of the buildings and traveled well enough around them. The buildings were pale plain colors and they all didn't go higher then three stories. What really caught my attention the most was the big mountain face that towered just above the city and I could see at least one huge carved face within its wall. I took it as a sign that maybe the impossible happened. That some how I have been brought to the Naruto universe and placed in Konoha. I moved forward to the mountain and found that a large cement wall was built pretty close to its face and a big circular red building half hid behind it. Another red wall was built to the left and had the same clay looking shingles decorating its top. This place didn't really feel unfamiliar to me because this place was shown within the TV show in some detail. When I finally reach the end of the street I see the evidence I need before me. Four great faces were carved into the stone and look to have been crafted well enough that only trained eyes could see its flaws. I know the faces are the old Hokages or leaders of the village only because I had done research on my own time.

' This is really it.' I think as I stare in awe at the stone faces. ' I don't know how, I don't know why, but I really am here in Konohagakure.' I remember that the name means ' village hidden within the leaves' in the Japanese language and felt it fit this place very well as I know Konoha is also covered with trees. I notice the flora that seemed to grow well within this area of town and littered the base of the mountain face. I could see at least two or three buildings that reside close to the mountain face. I have a hunch that the one red building I see is the Hokage's office as I remember it being blocked by a cement wall just like I see before me. I also believe the Shinobi Academy was hiding behind the other red wall I saw. I find myself wondering how I have been able to keep my cool this long because of this very outlandish situation. I realize the truth; I really am freaking out, I just have an emotional barrier on my mind that I figure could be one of my many personalities.

" Ok Sam, what do you need to do right now?" I ask myself with a slight airy tone. I answer myself honestly.

" Well I need a place to stay, because I'm not staying on the street." A thought occurs to me as I said my words. ' Shouldn't I check if I have some amazing ability to read Japanese?' I think about that for a moment.

" Well it happens in fan fictions." and while it does indeed happen in fan fiction I found out the truth as I spotted a sign near by. It is placed strategically by two streets and I figure it's a street sign. From where I stand I couldn't read it well. So I walk closer and inspected it with better detail. I could tell the writing scripted on there is defiantly Japanese; but I can't understand it. Nothing really happened as I looked at the sign. I guess I'm not able to just 'know' a language instinctively. I did initionally figure that would be the case but I suppose I was really hoping for a little leeway. " Well crap." I say and turn back around. I saw a sort of wall connected to the cement wall that I was sure protected the Hokage's building. ' That must be the place that holds the Academy.' From what I knew they would possibly accept me and let me become a student and I had begun walking to the arching entry way before realizing my mistake.

" What am I doing? I need to get a place first!" I couldn't figure out where I would go to get that information really so I figured that I could go ask someone in the Hokage's main building.

So I walk around the cement wall that had Japanese shingles tiling down ward toward my side of things. When I got to the entrance I found myself in aw of the big building. It is very large building with red painting on its exterior. I could only look in aw as I saw the massive size of wooden doors and I could see above it a Japanese symbol is written big across a circular sign built into the building itself. I remembered that the symbol meant fire and couldn't help the giddy and childish excitement as I walk up to its doors.

' This is it, I'm actually going to go inside the Hokage's building!' I did try to control my eagerness outwardly by remembering that this place wasn't all that special here and I would look strange if I started squealing. As much as it is a buzz kill it helps me become calm again. Well as calm as one could be when one was completing a dream. I take hold of one of the big door's handles try pulling it to me with no result. So I pushed the door and saw it gave way. I found myself entering a lobby room filled with rusty red walls. The back end of the room held a little office space for the secretary that sat behind a desk there. The woman that sat behind the desk wore glasses and had her dark brown hair within a braid. I look around the room for any sign of what I'm suppose to do; but because I only understand English I figure I would only make a fool of myself if I tried reading Japanese again. I look at the woman working on a type writer and see that we are the only two within the room. ' Well what is there to lose besides my pride?'

I walk over to her desk and call her to attention.

" Excuse me Ma'am." She stops typing on the type writer that sat on her desk and looks up at me.

" Yes, how may I help you?" I tried to calm my sudden jittery feeling as I reply.

" I'm very new to Konoha and I don't know where to go to get information. Can you direct me to a building or a place that could help me find an apartment?" She replies,

" I'm afraid I can't really help you get that information." my hopes go down as I reply,

" Oh." She looks me over for a moment and she asks.

" Have you been registered as a citizen of Konoha?" I easily reply,

" No I haven't." she moves her typewriter to the side and asks

" Ok, how old are you?" I answer.

" Eighteen." She raises an eye brow and asks

" How long have you been in Konoha?" I answer with only a guess.

" A couple of hours." I hate that I cannot be sure with my answer as I hate lying. I hope that while she asks me questions she doesn't demand knowing where I'm from. The loony bin does not sound like a nice place to be. She opened a drawer from her desk and placed a stack of papers on the desk in front of me.

" Fill that out and bring it back here when you are finished." I was about to take it and go sit somewhere in this hall when I notice the Japanese all over it.

" I can't read this." She raises an eye brow.

" Surely you learned how to read?" I answered with a sudden sureness in my voice

" I only learned how to read English." Her eye brow raises once again and she asks me

" English?" I nod,

" Yes it's a language here isn't it?" She nods and says,

" Well I can't say I'm surprised." I give her a curious look and ask,

" How so?" she takes the package of paper away and rummages through her brown desk.

" Well your clothing of course." I noted that my t-shirt and jeans outfit is very unique compared to the woman's pale robes.

" Yea I guess my clothing is really outlandish." I watch woman take another package of papers from her desk and put it down in front of me.

" Fill this out and give the packet back to me." I couldn't keep my curiosity to myself as I asked.

" What exactly am I filling out papers for?" The woman easily answered

" Well for you ID of course. Your not a registered citizen of Konoha so the first thing you really need to do is be registered." I nod and internally question her idea of priorities. I left the desk and sat in one of the chairs, took a pencil out from my bag, and started filling out the paper

As I filled out the paper I came upon some puzzling questions where I couldn't put an answer to like where I lived or when I was born. I was obviously born in the United States of America and I was born on January Seventeenth; but I couldn't say what year and I was pretty sure that America doesn't exist within this world. So I simply left my country blank and asked out loud.

" What's today's date?" She looks at me and gives her answer.

" June seventeenth in the second reign of the Third Hokage." I furrow my eyebrows with confusion and think ' How in the world am I supposed to write that?' So I write down the part of the date I knew how and left what I couldn't write blank.

When I finish filling out the papers I find myself looking at the clock on the wall just above the lady's desk and find that I actually understand that it is two twenty six in the afternoon despite the kanji. While I believe its been at least two hours since I arrived in Konoha I know that I have probably been here a lot longer. I walk over to the desk and wait silently for her to notice me. She looks up at me with her brown eyes and asks me,

" Are you done with the packet?" I nod and I tell her.

" There were some things that confused me so I hope you don't mind I left them blank." she nods and

begins to look at the papers.

" Ok, so your name is…Samantha Porter?" I nod and ignore the mispronunciation. "Yes that is my name." she furrows her brow as she looks at the papers. She tapped the table with her fingers three times then says,

" We'll have your papers registered and we'll get your ID picture taken, ok Ms. Porter?" I nod and she leaves her desk asking me.

" Please follow me." I follow her up wooden stairs that were located just next to the desk. From the first floor we came to a second floor and I begin to believe this building is far bigger then what I've been led to believe on the TV show. We came up to a clockwise turning hallway with doors set on the inside curve while there were windows on the outside edge of the hallway. We followed this dark colored hallway and then turned to a wooden door that looked like many of the other doors. I see a piece of wood with Japanese kanji written on it nailed to the wall on the right side of the door like many others. She turned the door knob and we came to be within a tan colored room with a single white wall to the left and had a strange dark brown looking box with a white trim sitting on a stand and had a black cape hooked to what I assumed to be the back end. On the front of the box was a big focusing lens stretched outside the box about an inch covered with the same dark brown hue as the box.

I am a little unsure if this box is a camera because it looks very old; but my memory reminds me that when Naruto himself got his picture taken for the Shinobi bingo book he too had his picture taken by the same old looking box. I note though that this isn't the same camera box that Naruto gotten his picture taken by. I couldn't figure out how I knew that when I have only seen the box once in the times I watched the anime. I believe I remember the box being a lighter hue of brown and had yellow rims. This box I see before me only looks similar to that one.

The woman walks over to the box and says.

" Alright let me make sure this is up and working." She went under the cape of the machine and began to fiddle with it as I look around the room. Thoughts filled with worry begin to work into my mind as I wonder if I will be able to find a place to stay before nightfall. I know what happens in a city with homeless women on the streets. The worse case scenario flooded to my mind and struggle to fight the panic rising within me. Suddenly I am dragged out of my thoughts by the woman.

" Alright Ms. Porter would you stand in front of the white wall in front of the camera, please?" I silently moved in front of the camera and naturally smiled.

" You don't need to smile for this, Ms. Porter" My reply is only a dumb.

" Oh." I force my face to relax in response to her words. She held a metal piece of equipment that looked to have white powder on it.

" Alright look at the camera." I looked into its dark lends and watch a popping flash out of the corner of my eye. She removes herself from underneath the black covers and says.

" Well that's everything." I feel confusion well up in me and I ask.

" Wait what do you do with the ID photo? Don't I get an ID card or something?" She gave me a strange look and replied.

" The city and the hospital here keep your photo ID to identify you. We don't give out 'ID cards' because enemy Shinobi can easily pickpocket civilians and even then they can copy your outlook with Genjutsu."

" Oh ok, that makes sense." before I know it I am back in the lobby and I am given directions to a place that would hopefully be able to help not have to sleep on the street.

I followed the directions to the best of my ability and pray as I walk along Konoha's roads that I don't become lost. I find myself in a rather cramped area of Konoha where the buildings are tall and the roads were small, well smaller then the other streets I've been around so far. I find myself looking at a big and tall white building with dark door in front of me. On the right of the building a stairway resided that led to where I believe the apartments reside. " Well this looks to be the place." I found myself speaking a different tone as I then said. " Lets hope that we aren't wrong." I walk up to the door and open it. I find myself in another little lobby with a big box container off to the far left of the room where I assume the residents get their mail. Each of the smaller compartments had a lock set on them. There are chairs and a table set up at the bottom left corner of the room. The room's walls were white and a old lady sat at the desk in the middle of the rooms. She had long gray hair and had age lines on her face. She had her arms folded and looked to be in a sour mood.

" Can I help you?" the woman's voice was deep with age and slightly raspy. I found myself asking dumbly as I approached the desk .

" Is this Motoka's Apartments Office?" The woman replied.

" Yes it is." I found myself slightly put off by this woman's attitude and said. " I was wanting to rent out an apartment." She raised an eye brow.

" Really now?" I nod.

"What kind of apartment were you looking for?" I feel my nervousness disappear slightly as I answer. " What do you have available?" She answered quite coldly.

" We have two roomed apartments and one bedroom apartments."

" One bedroom apartment is what I'm looking for." She nodded and asks " Do you have any identification?" She began to give me an evil eye as I answered

" I don't have any papers."

" So you expect me to rent out to a stranger? Are you even from Konoha?" I answer quietly,

" No ma'am." She pulls out a small box with Japanese kanji on it. She pulls out a cigarette and lights it with a white lighter.

" I don't suppose you have any money to pay the deposit, do you?" I answer,

" I don't have any money ma'am." The old woman takes a deep drag off her cigarette.

" What makes you think I'll just give you an apartment?" I find myself answering,

" No, I do want to pay for the apartment I just can't right now." She takes another drag off her cigarette and I find the smell unpleasant.

" I run a business here kid, I can't be making donations here." I can't help my temper as I answer

" Don't you need the money?" She answered with a slightly hot temper.

" I don't have problems with my customers kid but I have a problem with you demanding I give you an apartment for free when I know nothing about you and you are a foreigner." I push my temper to the back of my mind as I then relay my situation.

" Look ma'am I really don't know what else I can do. I have no where I can go for the night. If I don't get a place I'll be sleeping on the street and that's dangerous for a woman. I never intended for you to give me the apartment for free I just can't pay right now." I bow in my seat and I ask.

" Please let me rent an apartment from you." I silently pray to god that she lets me to have the apartment I don't know what I would do if she said no. I hear an audible sigh after a few moments of silence.

" Alright I'll give you the apartment on the condition that you will pay me when money comes in." I look up at her with such surprise.

" Oh my god thank you!" She gets up waving a hand.

" Look you say anything about it I'll kick you out, clear?"

" Yes ma'am thank you." She starts digging in her desk and I could have sworn I heard her curse as she left her chair and went digging in the file cabinets she had. She muttered under her breath as she dug through the file cabinets.

" Ah here it is!" She brought a packet of paper out and placed it on her desk.

" I need you to fill these out and then we'll be set." She walks to one of her file cabinets and I watch her rummage through them. I at one point thought I heard a curse word come out of her mouth.

" Aha! Here they are." As she comes back with a pile of papers I ask

" Are those the apartment papers I need to sign?" Suddenly she was annoyed and said.

" Yes these are the papers." She places them on the desk and I look at them and once again see Japanese writing.

" I can't read Japanese. Do you have papers in English?" She took the papers back roughly and began to once again rummage through the file cabinets in what I assumed was annoyance. After a few minutes of rummaging she brought another package of papers to the desk and set them in front of me. I find that its all in English. I once again take a seat at the desk and fill out the papers as best as I can and ask questions when I didn't understand. The old lady answered even though I realized my questions became very annoying to her.

Just as I finish the papers she takes them and read through them silently and left me feeling nervous.

" Well now I suppose I have to give you your key." I was about to answer and she quickly said.

" Don't answer me." She takes out a key from her desk and places it in front of me.

" This will be your Apartment Key and your mail box key. You lose that and I will make you pay me extra for another key."

" Yes ma'am." She's slightly softer as she says,

" You just call me Miss Motoka ok kid?" " Ok." I take the key in my hand and place it within my pockets. She stands up and says

" I suppose I have to show you where your apartment is don't I?" I reply

" Yes please." I follow her out of the lobby and back outside. I looked at the stairs with slight distaste and with my American laziness; but my grumbling was easily put aside and I notice the old lady grimaced just the same.

" Are you going to be all right?" both of her eyes glare at me instantly as she says,

" Yes, now hurry up before I change my mind." I sensed her anger and reply,

" Yes ma'am." I follow her up the steps fair enough and found the strategy of the stairs to be well made. The steps curved around the building and led to a whole floor of doors. We had ended up at the back of the building and then when we walked around back to the front of the building. My fear of heights kicked in and I found myself struggling to be 'ok'. We went up another two flights around the same way and then we came to the top. Both my mind and my personalities struggled to calm themselves as we gazed around the area. The walls were white and the doors themselves were green. Each door has what looks like numbers on it, I feel like a child who never learned to read and wanted dearly to learn it. It was made clear to me as the woman gestured to me at the second to last door; I have to apply for the Shinobi academy. I unlocked the door as the lady gestures me to and I find myself genuinely happy for my first accomplishment. Tears begin to form as I thought about my parents and of how they would be proud of me. I wipe my eyes and I walk inside. Before I had realized what I done the lady remarks.

" Normally you would take off your shoes before entering someone's home." I quickly replied.

" Sorry." and took off my cozy boots. They were created with a leafy camouflage background. While I had set them at the door the lady said.

" Both your electricity and water should be turned on by tonight. So get some sleep you look like you need it." I didn't find myself particularly tired but I nodded none the less and found myself asking.

" Do you know when the academy hours are?" The lady was just leaving as she turned to look at me.

" I don't know what you would be wanting with the academy; but they aren't open to civilians." I didn't know whether that was true but after a moments silence she answered my initial question.

" They're open tomorrow." I nod and thank the lady as she leaves me alone with my new apartment. I place my heavy school bag on the floor and stretch out my back. I know I'm going to be in pain tonight. I looked around the first room and took note of the closet that resided in the far right of the room. Both of my ankles popped as I walked around on the smooth wooden floor. By this time I was beginning to feel the isolation and my schizophrenia threatened to act up. I knew that if I went without medicine long enough I would be unfit to do anything. Give or take six to nine months of torture before I would crack and be too lost inside the imagined world to do anything really. I didn't want to remember in detail what had transpired the last time I had gone off of medications; but I know I am not ready for it.

" So guys…Its just us now." I listened in my mind for some answer and heard nothing. I was beginning to become confused when I heard.

" Well did you hear that?" I furrowed my brow. 'that wasn't my voices.' I walked over to my right wall and listened trying to drown out the repulsive nonsense that exploded within my mind, A very familiar voice reprimanded ' Sam you shouldn't be ease dropping.' I found myself grudgingly agreeing and moved my ear away from the wall. I walked away from the wall despite hearing the talking and sat next to my bag. ' I am alone, living or dead there is no one there for me.' Being brought to a humbling moment I spoke out loud.

" God, where ever you are. I hope you hear me and help me out because I don't know what I'm doing here. Please, in lord Jesus name amen." Both my eyes watered and I found myself not wanting to stop the tears. I cried there with soft sobs and asking god.

" Oh please tell me why I'm here!" I spoke in soft whispers begging god to show me why I was here or at least bring me some closure on the whole situation. Despite being here for only a few hours at best I found myself seeing the waning light of day through my window when I had tired myself out. I scooted myself down and laid my head against the backpack I had and tried to sleep despite knowing it would be uncomfortable. I let my voices run in my head hoping to find them somewhat comforting as I know tomorrow will be a critical test and shifter of my fate.


	2. Academy Application

I awake the next morning finding myself slightly surprised by my surroundings. _' That's right, I'm in Konoha now.'_ Removing my head from my pillow I get up and stretch my body as I try to relieve the slight numb sensation in my arm. The stiffness I feel makes me wish I had a bed too. I use the utilities and I found myself hearing a boy

" Oh crap! Iruka-sensei is going to kill me!" then I hear a door slam shut and running feet. The voice is very familiar as much as the name is. I find myself lightly thinking that it could have been Naruto. I banish the thought though because I knew the chances of that were slim to none. _' Besides,'_ I figure, _' its best I don't meet him. He doesn't need a creepy adult fan or anything like that.'_

I leave the bathroom and go into the kitchen and drink from the sink there knowing dehydration would kill me faster then lack of food. The thought of food made me feel the hunger pains I had been able to ignore before. I looked around my kitchen for once and noticed that the floor was wooden planked. The walls were white just like my living area and there is only one window in my kitchen. Walking to the window I found myself looking at the village below. There was another building across from mine and I could somewhat see the road bellow.

Homesickness strikes me and I cannot seem to get out of my mind how much different this world was to my own. Never the less I do try to remove it from my mind by remembering my goal.

" I have to learn how to read and the only place I can learn is from the Academy." I know I could risk humiliating myself asking for schooling; but I don't have the luxury to decide on going to school or not. ' Even if they did accept me who was to say I would become a Shinobi?' I shook my head and reminded the voice. " I just need to learn to read if I become a Shinobi fine if I don't fine I just need this education." A part of me was pretty upset about that reminder. I was just about to finish my last year of high school before I had come here which frustrates me a lot.

" God that frustrates me!" I say out loud and put my pointer finger and thumb about an inch from each other.

" I was this close! This freaking close to freaking getting out of there! Now I have do deal with this bull crap!" I start trying to strangle air as I repeated the f-bomb feverishly to myself. I end up asking loudly.

" Why did you have to do this to me God!" Then I hear

" Shut up! People are trying to sleep here!" I found myself sheepish as I say,

" Sorry!" but instead of thinking that the noise came from outside of my head I began to believe its from inside my own mind.

" Crap, don't you people get that I am trying to express myself?" The same voice that spoke before is female and sounds like a second soprano like Sakura Haruno. _' Yea but that doesn't mean you have to be loud about it.'_ I find myself frowning and quietly apologizing and feeling a lot calmer. There was really no need to worry about impressing anyone and I can feel that stressful weight being lifted from my shoulder. There was no need to prove myself there was no one who I needed to act for. In that thought I felt the loneliness creep out inside of me.

 _' Don't you have to register for the Academy?'_ I could hear a voice ask. It drags me away from my feelings of loneliness and brings me back to the subject at hand.

" Right I have to get registered. Or at least try to." I look at the ceiling and say,

" Oh god please let me be able to register." I mutter in my mind _' In lord Jesus name ...'_

Before I know it I find my way back through the town and back up to the Hokage's building. On the way there I had found myself thinking of asking the front desk if I needed to go inside the academy for student registration since I figured that both the Academy and the Hokage's building were both under the same operation.

I enter the office and have the great pleasure of meeting the same young woman who worked with me yesterday. The woman gives me a smile.

" Well you certainly know your way around the place back again so soon?" I answer her.

" Yes, I need to know if you have to enter the Academy for student registration." She waves her hand and says.

" You actually have to talk to one of the teachers there to actually register." _' Oh crap.'_ I think and then ask " How long do I have to wait for them to be available?"

" You usually have to wait until," She stops talking for a moment and I notice she's looking past me.

" Well its your lucky day. Umino-san!" I turn around and see a young man in a green vest with three small scroll pockets set on his left chest area. Both of my eyes widen because this man looks strikingly familiar to the anime character Iruka. He bared the same scar across his nose and had the same dark tan. Despite the familiarity I let my mind go blank and let myself be open to the possibility that I wasn't actually about the greet the same man. He has a smile and he asks.

" Hey Wakari-san what is it you need?" I look back to the Secretary and she closes a book she was working on and she says,

" This woman would like to talk to you about registering for the Academy." I look back at him and he says with a smile.

" Help her? I'm afraid I can't do that right now." I find myself feeling disappointed and the girl says.

" You know the rules don't you Umino-san?" I watch him nod and say with a hand behind his head.

" Yes I remember, I just can't do it right now." He looks at me and asks,

" Are you able to wait until classes are done?" I nod and reply,

" Yea what time will you be done?" He removes his hand from his head.

" I will be done around two o'clock. Will you wait for me until then?" I nod and answer,

" I will be here at that time." He smiles and replies,

" Well that's a relief. Thanks for your co-operation." I smile.

" Oh yea, no problem." in my mind a picture flashed within my mind and I found myself shaking my head. I had seen that the man before me had 'stars' in his eyes. ' Boy my imagination is a moron.' I think as I watch the man leave. I turn back to the lady behind the desk and bow shortly

" Thank you for helping me." She sighs.

" Its no problem. I would just like Iruka to take his job more seriously." I feel surprise and curiosity wrap my mind as I ask.

" His name is Iruka?" I turn to look back at him to find him gone.

" He's a bit of a hunk isn't he?" Furrowing my eye brows I turned to her with confusion, " I suppose…" but I see the lady acted as if she said nothing. Both of my eyes wander to the clock and I see its ten twenty in the morning. ' I've got some time before I have to meet with him.' I figure I can go home and I'm about to leave when the woman says.

" Oh ma'am," I turn around and look back at her she looks sheepish as she's pushing her fingers together.

" Would you mind not telling him about what I said?" I gave her an unsure look,

" Sure," I don't think it really matters if I say anything but have her give a sigh of relief had me thinking that I should at least keep my comments to myself. With that I left the building and I found myself unsure of what to do.

I decided then to look around town and explore around the town; but when I began to smell food I found myself unable to continue my adventure through town and returned to the Hokage building. I approach the Hokage building once again and find myself once again in awe. As I look at the mountain face I can scarcely believe I am here and can't help but internally admit that it all feels like a dream. Both my eyes water and I wipe away my tears.

 _'This is a reality a reality I must live in.'_ I have to choke back my tears because I don't like crying in public. I force the thought away easily as another entered my mind.

 _' This is what you wanted once.'_ I feel the tears disappear as I analyze that thought. I knew very well a long time ago I had indeed wanted this event to happen to me. In fact I was thirteen when I made the wish to be here. I could only furrow my brow with confusion.

 _' Why now though?'_ I shake my head.

 _' It doesn't matter right now.'_ I find a sense of familiarity as I feel a thought burrow into my mind.

 _' Here everything's different. Here everything can change. We can change.'_ I understood what it meant easily. To me it meant that life for me was no longer conformed to the same rules as it once had; but now I am able to live out dreams. Dreams that I had never been allowed to explore.

' Yea right.' an nuisance says in my mind. ' you can't even read kanji let alone become a Shinobi.' Both my heart and my mind was infuriated that the nuisance had the gall to use Sakura's voice to taunt me.

" How freaking dare you talk to me like that!" I say under my breath; but there was only silence and I was left to mull over the facts on my own. I know that it would be a very slim chance that I could be accepted and really become a Shinobi; but I also know there was that slim chance that would allow me that dream to be realized if only for a short time.

With a new resolve I entered the Hokage tower and looked at the clock. Both of my eyes became wide as my heart dropped. ' But how could I have been late?' it's a quarter past three. My hope was killed and I found myself leaving the building. Just as I was about to go out the door I ran into the same man who I saw just hours before. " Ah! Sorry!" He says apologetically and I shake my head.

" Oh its ok." My hope was sparked as I asked.

" Am I too late to register?" He shakes his head

" No of course not!" I give a huge sigh of relief.

" Oh good! it's a quarter past three so I thought." He gives me a confused look

" Three?" He looks past me and says " Wakari-san! You forgot to change the clock!" I hear,

" Oh my gosh your right!" He smiles and looks back at me.

" Now lets get you registered." I nod and I ask with concern,

" Where are we going for that?" He had just turned to leave and he turns his head back to me and says,

" Well we're going to the school for that."

" Oh, ok." I keep my excitement to myself as we walk towards the school because I didn't really want to look like a total nitwit.

We walk to the red stone wall and I find myself in awe at the building behind it. The building is connected to the wall but it outgrows it five times as much and I assume the building wall is pretty thick. We walked cross a courtyard and a single tree by the wall that held one wooden swing. The building was white with red trimmed shingles and it stretched out to the right pretty far to the point I had to assume this building was built in either a 'T' shape or a very big 'L' shape. The building was at least two stories high and looked pretty spacious to me. The buildings front door was located near the wall where the two buildings connect and is wooden but not as massive as the Hokage's office its simple size felt very ordinary.

A thought came to mind as we walked up to the Academy's doors.

" If you don't mind me asking, don't you have a age limit on people who can attend the academy?" Iruka looks back at me and replies, " We usually do have an age limit." I couldn't help but ask.

" Then why are you helping me?" He answers plainly.

"I have to at least hear you out before declining your application."

" Oh." Light answers return to me as I gratefully say.

" Thank you for at least hearing me out."

We walk inside the building and I am left with amazement . Its walls were plain white but still had the basic office space to it. On the left was where I assumed the office was and we headed toward the left door which I couldn't figure out.

" We'll do I interview in here." I nod and found my mind clouded with worry. Inside the room was a desk and two chairs. He took the seat farthest from the door and I found myself taking the closest seat.

" Alright Miss tell me why you want to apply to the academy." I found myself ridiculing my answer as it left my mouth.

" I want to learn to read Japanese." He gave me a confused look and I found myself slightly embarrassed by my circumstance. He asks me after a moment of speculating me.

" Shouldn't you all ready know how to read Japanese?" I answered with surprising confidence.

" Well I grew up speaking and writing English so I wasn't prepared when I arrived here. Knowing how to speak Japanese as I am right now is very confusing so I was hopping that you would allow me to at least learn to read and write Japanese before kicking me out for my lack of skill in the ninja, I mean Shinobi art."I was mentally kicking myself as I had caught my mistake too late. Ninja is the derogatory term we Americans give to the people who practice the Shinobi art. In truth the proper name for them is Shinobi and when dealing with Japanese Shinobi it's highly disrespectful to call them ninja. At least I believe that to be the case. He actually doesn't look to be too offended. In fact he is actually smiling at me and it has me very worried.

" I can see that your educated in the proper use of our name." I nodded.

" You speak good Japanese for being raised in an English speaking community." I tell him.

" Japanese sounds like English to me sir so I don't know what you would call it." I find my ears notice a slight change in my dialect as I said. " This whole understanding Japanese naturally is actually kind of weird if not cheating." My eyes widen in surprise and he says.

" You speak very good English as well." my eyes widen and I furrow my eyebrows in confusion.

" That was English to you?" He nods and says.

" I'm afraid I don't know where your getting at so lets concentrate on this interview." I quickly say with embarrassment

" Oh right." I tried not to show the embarrassment I feel with not a lot of luck and he asks me.

"Do you have your papers?" I could only say intelligently,

" I didn't know I was supposed to have papers with me." My face feels hot as he smiles and says,

" Well its not a big problem as long as you're a registered citizen of Konoha we should be able to find out your records." I'm very thankful at that moment that I had indeed gotten registered with the city and I nod.

" Yes I am a registered citizen of Konoha." He nods and asks me,

" Where are your parents?" I struggled to find an answer and I knew each moment I wasted it would raise his suspicion of me. " I…uh…They're in a different country right now!" I struggled to keep from panicking as he says in a eerie calm.

" Oh really? What is this country of yours?" I know its to late for me as I sigh and decide to get it over with.

" The country is called 'The United States Of America.'" He furrows his brow and asks me.

" Are you seriously thinking I'm going to believe that's a country?" I look down at the table.

" No." He sighs and asks

" Why are you lying to me instead of telling the truth?" I sigh and try to explain.

" I can't tell where I'm from even if I wanted to. Please believe me Konoha is safe from my country." He states.

" Except you could be a enemy Shinobi for all I know." I nod.

" I understand this and I look at him and say.

" All I really want to do is learn how to read and write Japanese. You could just kick me out after I learned a sufficient amount of Japanese." He shakes his head.

" This is a Shinobi training school if you applied here you would not only be learning that; but you would also be learning trade secrets of our country's training system. Not that I expect you to know anything about being a Shinobi in the first place since you are indeed just a civilian." I decided to be silent and nod. ' I probably shouldn't say I know some of the simple basics of Shinobi training. The rest is really just dependent on the school itself.' I thought those words somewhat in the same concept. I decide to ask.

" Are you going to let me become a student?" He shakes his head.

" That isn't really my authority, Miss." I decide to ask another question with genuine curiosity.

" Have you had others like myself ask to join the Academy?" His answers

" We've had people come in because it was their dream to become a Shinobi. We have not had a case like yours before."

" May I ask you a question?" He answers,

" Sure, ask away."

" Do you think you would trust me, despite my story?" He answers stiffly,

" I'm not really allowed to answer that question."

" Ok." I can't help but feel disappointed as I look down at the table. a hand lands on my shoulder gently as he says. " Hey you still could be allowed to register despite your story." I look back up at him feeling my hope return.

" You really think so?" He nods.

" Yes just because I say no doesn't mean the Hokage will." Now my eyes widen at that and ask with disbelief.

" You mean the _Hokage_ is the one who's going to read my request?" He answers.

" Yes, you'll fill out the registration papers and I will present the papers to him and he will officially decide if you can register or not." I feel confusion fall on me as I ask.

" Isn't there someone else who looks at the registration papers?" He answers.

" Normally I would give the papers to the registrar and he would pass them through. You however are a special case that the registrar is not allowed to handle and it must be done by the Hokage. Unless you decide not to register at all." I find myself slightly angry at him as I say.

" I do want to register." He nods and stands up."

" All right, I will grab those registration papers." As he is about to leave I stop him and say. " I cannot read Japanese, so please get an English copy." He leaves with a curt nod and I am left alone in the room.

My mind's sanity almost instantly starts to waver as I sat in that room. I fought to keep my mind empty and from repeating random instances from my childhood. I do not want to dwell on things that make me immature or are a result from child hood interest. I force my mind to replay a song from the band Flyleaf as one of my coping mechanisms to the schizophrenia. I can hear the guitar solo in my mind and I relax as I let it play out. _' Had a dream that we were dead; but we pretended that we still lived.'_ I began to mouth the lyrics and tried my hardest not to sing.

The door opened and I was startled enough to become quiet. He places a packet of paper in front of me and a pencil beside my paper.

" Here is the papers you have to sign. I'll be back in a little while." I set my mind to working on the papers alone as he shuts the door. I look at the papers and I'm happy to see he could find some English. I take the pencil and begin working on the papers humming the flyleaf song 'This Close.'. When I do finish filling out the papers to the best of my ability I find myself drawing on the paper; taking careful note that I would have to erase it once he returned. I had drawn a simple anime girl with eyes that looked too big for the face and found myself less then happy about the lack finesse the character's hair had. I remember wanting to create a manga book with the Japanese cartoon style. Erasing the character was easy as I felt it was not up to my standards, which were pretty high. I remembered with a happy fondness that at home I had actually drawn one picture I was very proud of; it was a picture of Sakura Haruno who was smiling warmly as she looked at you from the page. My heart hurt slightly as I heard in my mind. _' Doesn't this mean I could meet her?'_ I had to shake my head and reply. ' You know as well as I do its disastrous to think about it; besides she could already be a trained Shinobi for all I know. You know as well as I do she wouldn't be interested without good reason.' I added out loud.

" They are human beings now, whether they exist in the cosmos or heaven forbid they are children living like normal humans. You are not going to fan girl or I swear to god I will put us out of our misery!" I had a hissing comeback come to me. ' You wouldn't do that.' I replied out loud threateningly,

" Don't tempt me." I know it was right though, I had made a promise to not to harm myself or willingly commit suicide and while I did have a knack for making false promises. I wasn't going to break that particular promise just because of a stupid voice in my head. So with a grumble I began to draw another character knowing that it had won a victory over me once again.

This character had an interesting look to her. She was very gentle looking and had a small smile. Her hair was long and she had elf ears poking out of her hair. Before I had realized what I did Iruka returned to the room and I quickly erase the character drawn on there.

" All right Miss, are you done with your papers?" I answer.

" Yes, here ya go." I raise the papers to him and he takes them out of my hand.

" Well I will see you in two days time all right?" I asked him.

" What's the week day?" Iruka answers me easily.

" Today is a Monday." I'm pleasantly surprised by his use of the English days.

" Thanks." I stand up and I ask.

"Do we meet at the same time?" He answers.

" We'll have our answer to your request by Thursday." I nod and leave muttering to myself.

" I assume that's a yes."


	3. Meeting the Neighbors

I leave the room and the building feeling content and slightly worried. Content because I had gone out of my way to register like I intended; but feeling worried because I didn't know what to do should they actually keep me from becoming a student. I knew it would be very hard for me physically wise because I'm a heavy set girl around two hundred pounds, I have no strength in my arms, and then I have to worry about me loafing around like an idiot. I know I'm used to the false sense of security my town gave me. I didn't have to worry about people trying to kill me or worry about being out on the street like I do now. I only wondered if I would actually train now that I had no computer to distract me. I simply shrugged my shoulders and continued my walk home thinking of my next task; getting a job. I knew nothing about how the academy program worked and I know that just because I'm on my own I don't necessarily get benefits like Naruto does. That thought reminds me of what I heard this morning. My curiosity has me wondering what kind of life he would be living right now.

I finally see my apartment building and I smile because I miss the joys of being in a car and I'm happy to be staying in one spot. When I get to the steps I once again have to fight my fear of heights as I ascend the steps. When I get to my floor I just make it halfway to my door when a small, spiky haired blond boy runs out of an apartment and stops in front of me yelling,

" Hey, who are you?" I furrow my brows and I answer.

" My name is Samantha Porter," He looks confused and I add.

" I'm a new attendant, I mean I'm a new," He folds his arms and says.

" Spill the beans already lady, I ain't got all day!" I take a breath and say.

" I just got an apartment yesterday, I live on this floor." He nods and replies,

" Did the old hag let you stay for free or something?" I shake my head

" No, I have to pay just like everyone else here." He gives me a cheeky grin,

" Hokage-jiji said I don't have to pay for my apartment, and the old hag get so mad!" His cheeky grin contorts into this confused look and asks.

" Hey, why are you talking to me?" I answer the boy with patience. " You started talking to me first." He shakes his head,

" No, like you actually care about me." I try to answer him nicely.

" I think you're jumping ahead of yourself here. We've barely met and I don't even know your name." He gets this wide grin and points a thumb at himself.

" My name's Uzumaki Naruto and I'm going to be the next Hokage!" I cannot help my shock as I say. " Your Naruto?" He gives me a proud grin,

"Dang right I am!" This goes completely against what I had expected living here. Here is Naruto Uzumaki before me and I can't help but ask.

" How old are you?" He holds his hands up, two fingers were up on one hand and all five on the other.

" I'm seven years old!" It was then I noticed the three parallel lines on each cheek, it gave me the impression of him really having whiskers like a cat.

" Oh my god." I say slowly under my breath. This boy right before me is really Naruto. All I could think was. _'God what have I gotten myself into?'_ Naruto gave me a angry look as he demanded.

" Hey why are you staring at me like I'm a freak or something?" I close my eyes and shake my head.

" Sorry, Naruto-san." I have to fight myself to not become familiar with him. He points a thumb at himself and says.

" Just call me Naruto." His face contorts to a confused look.

" Great, now I can't remember what I was doing out here!" I decide to suggest to him.

" You might have been going downstairs for something." His face brightened up as he says " Oh yea! Thanks Old lady!" I'm so shocked by his words that he runs right by me before I can protest.

" Old lady?" I've never in my life been called an old lady. I look around for him with my jaw dropped as I try to comprehend the boys audacity.

" Hey come back here." I say weakly as I realize too late he's already gone.

I continue to my apartment door and I pull out my key from my pocket. Unlocking the door I step into my door way and I find myself looking at my empty room. The only items there were my school backpack and the green diary I had.

" I'm home." I say weakly as I remember to take off my boots. I shut the door behind me as I enter my home. I could feel my hunger bothering me once again and I knew my body wanted food. The last time I had eaten I had a bowl of ramen noodles and it was the very cheap kind too. My eyes watered as I could smell food on the air. I went to my kitchen and saw no one there.

" Damn, it's the neighbors." I know Sakura wasn't there but my mind taunted me with a vision of her giving me a smile and saying 'welcome home!' with her cooking food no less. I tried my best to be positive and say something nice about the lucky family.

" Well I hope they enjoy the food, whatever it may be." I clap my hands together and say.

" Dear lord Jesus please send me some food my way because I'm really hungry. In lord Jesus name ..." After this prayer I decided to drink water from the faucet in my kitchen because I know I didn't drink anything all day. Going over to the faucet I turn on the cold water and lean over the sink. Even when my thirst had been satisfied I forced myself to drink more. When I feel I drank enough water I turn off the faucet and I find myself looking around my apartment with boredom setting in. While yes I still had my laziness there was no computer for me to write on. God forbid I had only so much paper and I didn't want to write in my diary again, not yet anyway.

A thought struck me so hard I couldn't believe I didn't think of it before: why not train? I find myself slowly agreeing to this suggestion. I had been training in Karate for a couple months within my town. _' We don't have a choice anymore.'_ a voice said who sounded like Sakura Haruno. _' if you don't train your going to die.'_ I frown and mutter.

" Wow what a way to ruin the mood." I hear her as if she's in the room. _' Sam you know I'm right.'_ I answer out loud with pursed lips and a surrendering. " I know." With that I see her point very well. If I don't train and I try to become a Shinobi I will die and death proves to be a very good motivator.

I go to my living room and pick up both my back and my diary. Placing my diary in my back I move my heavy bag into my hallway so that its not in the way. Both my heart and my mind wandered as I did my simple Karate kata's. I found myself in a complete trance of going through the movements. Sometime in the middle of my practicing I had to turn on my lights so that I could continue practicing.

When a knock resided on my door I was shocked enough that I forgot what I was doing in the Kata; Fukara Ni. " Who in the hell could that be?" I ask aloud, I walk quickly to my door and open.

A young woman is before me who has a serious look on her face. She's got long dark hair and she has dark eyes that go with her deep tanned skin. I ask politely.

" Yes?" She gave a rough reply.

" My mother invited you to dinner," She looked behind me.

" and anyone else who lives with you." I smile despite her sour attitude,

" It's just me, thank you for your kindness." She begins to leave and I find myself following. Shutting the door behind me I turn to lock it and say

" Could you hold on a moment? I have to lock my door." It honestly wasn't a habit I had. In truth I've barely started the habit yesterday; but I'll feel safer the moment this becomes a habit. I turn to look and she has opened the door next to my apartment. She waited there with an impatient look. I could feel my embarrassment climb my face as I said.

" Thank you." I walk into the home and see a smaller living room and a small kitchen behind it. An older lady sat at a small table brown table and I could hear another woman in the kitchen. I smile and politely say. The older woman had age lines that defined her cheeks with more character. Her hair was dark like the woman who invited me here, though I could see her hair was with age and didn't hold the same luster that the young tan woman did.

" My name is Samantha Porter," I say to introduce myself and bow.

" thank you for inviting me to dinner."

The old woman smiled and replied.

" Oh you're quite welcome, we heard from Mitoko-san that you moved into the apartment next to us." She tilts her head slightly and then asks.

" Is there anyone else with you?" I answer with a small smile.

" No, it's just me." _' Me and my personalities and I, along with my voices.'_ I think to myself.

The tanned young woman moved past me as I heard the door shut behind me. Her heart thumped in her chest as she switched personalities. Her eyes widened lightly then shaking my head I returned to normal. A thought came back to mind.

" Forgive me, I'm not really familiar with the Japanese customs of this place." As I walk to the table and sit next too her; her smile turns into a smirk as she says.

" Oh, so we have a foreigner in our mist. Naomi!" I hear the woman from the kitchen,

" Yes Mom?" I furrow my brow as I swore I heard. 'Hai, Okka-chan?' The older woman called to the one in the Kitchen.

" Make a separate dinner for Samantha," I notice her forget the ' th' in my name and say as the woman gave reply. I on the other hand hurried to fix their exception they were making for myself.

" You don't have to do that, I can eat whatever you guys are eating." I sit on my knees and watch as she smiles at me and says

" If you insist. Naomi, just make a plate for Samantha here." Again I hear conformation and I find myself looking to the kitchen; however my attention returns to the eldest lady in this home as she says.

" My name is Mitoko." I notice quickly both the appartment owner and this lady before me share the same name and connect the two mentally to better remember the name. Mitoko gestures to the tan girl who sat across from me and I turn my gaze to her.

" This is my grand daughter Asami." I smile at her and instinctively hold out a hand to her. She gives me a confused look and asks me.

" What are you doing?" I remember then that shaking hands is not something Japanese normally do and I explain taking away my hand.

" People from where I come from shake hands when greeting each other for the first time. It's a polite thing there." She raises an eyebrow and I can't help my chuckle and understanding.

" Yea I know, not the most sanitary thing to do." She shakes her head as she said.

" You have a weird culture." Mitoko gave a warning

" Asami." I look to Mitoko quickly and say.

" No its ok. Sometimes I think my culture is weird." I shake my head as I remember some of the stupid things the people I knew around me did.

" Some of the things we do." I say that with a little chuckle and they both look at me with some level of inquiry.

" What? Was I speaking English again?" Mitoko was the first to recover as she says

" I'm not familiar with that language." I decided to say.

" English is very common in the country where I came from. It's a lot more common then Japanese." Mitoko gives me a look of surprise,

" But you speak Japanese so fluently." I'm not about to tell her that Japanese sounds like fluent English to me or that I can barely discern the difference. So I decided to tell her.

" I studied Japanese on my free time in my country." Mitoko asks me.

" Did you have help while studying on your own?" I answered naturally.

" Yea I've had loads of help." I use this strange ability I have gained here as my help so it doesn't feel like a lie. I smile sheepishly as I say.

" While I have studied on my own. I actually can't read Japanese." Mitoko's look of surprise is fueled by her question.

" How could you have not learned to read our language?" I give a slight chuckle,

" I used the romanji version of Japanese." She looks confused and she askes me

" Speak clearer I don't understand you." "Ro-ma-ji, is what I believed it to be pronounced. Its basicly taking Japanese words and putting them into English spelling."

" So you used this, 'romaji' spelling to figure out how to read our language?" I nod realizing I was probably pronouncing it wrong.

" Well that's what I did in a nutshell." I pursed my lips slightly as I wondered _'Is there really such a thing here?'_ the answer is quite obvious. I'm either pronouncing it wrong or they haven't gotten that far with translating the two languages. Mitoko shakes her head looking pretty confused.

" I'm afraid you have me lost; child." I instinctively apologize,

" Sorry I don't mean to confuse you." Asami, who was quiet between our chat stated.

" Its pronounced Ro-ma-Ji not Ro-man-ji." While I think it's a snooty reply I nod and politely thank her,

" Thank you Asami." She gives me this angry look and shouts.

" It's Asami-san, not Asami." By that point I realized I offended her and gave another apology.

" I'm sorry I didn't mean to disrespect you I'm used to my language and how it works more than Japanese." She folds her arms and looks away with a huff and I find myself making more enemies then friends.

Just as this is occurring Mitoko's daughter brings a big bowl and to my surprize it is filled with rice. She quickly leaves.

" Asami won't you help your mother?" She gets up and leaves with a word. I am left with the Older lady in silence and I can't help but say.

" I didn't mean to upset her." The lady gave a sigh.

" Asami has been touchy lately, it's not your fault. We'll I can't say you won't get the same reaction as Asami gave you for lack of respect. Just try to remember to respect people from now on." I know very well that Asami's reaction was meant to teach me. Now the learning part would be tricky because I am very used to using English ways or more specifically American ways. Despite this I tried to memorize what Mitoko said.

Naomi and Asami brought dishes and other food to the table. I saw the food and I couldn't help but notice a problem. We were going to eat fish which isn't a big deal; but we were going to do this with chopsticks. I do know how to eat with chopsticks; but I never had to eat fish with them so I'm worrying that I'm going to make a fool out of myself. Life did not seem to be on my side today; although I get a meal I'm still probably going to make a fool out of myself: lovely. The food is set before me and my hunger roars back to life within me and I am left feeling awkward as my stomach growls. They look at me and I couldn't lie.

" I haven't eaten anything all day so I'm really hungry." Before I could protest Mitoko takes my bowl and shovels rice into the bowl until it's heaping and places it before me. Before I realize what I'm doing I'm taking the bowl in my hand and begin eating. I hear a

" Ahem." and look I see they had not begun eating and I place the bowl down with a sheepish grin.

" Sorry I'm really hungry."

When the rice is all served they placed their hands together which to me meant they were going to pray and I copied them closing my eyes ; but all they said was

" Thank you for the lovely meal." and I could hear movement. I opened my eyes and they had began to eat. Despite their own custom I mutter my thanks to the lord under my breath. After this I took the chopsticks they placed beside the plate and hunt for the bowl of rice given to me. Picking up the bowl I begin to shovel the food in my mouth; feeling my hunger roar to life and take over myself. It did not matter anymore if I looked like a slob, at this precise moment shovelling the food down my gullet really only mattered to me.

Despite my hungers control over my body I did notice the stares the family gave me only after half my rice was gone. I remove the bowl from my face and I give a sheepish smile.

" I'm sorry I haven't eaten for the day." The lady in front of me looked confused and spoke.

" Well no wonder, I thought our food wasn't going to be good to you since you're a foreigner." I quickly replied,

" Your food is great!" The woman replied.

" Could you not speak in that dialect, I can't understand you." ' Sheesh you'd think-'I quickly tone out the voice forcefully thinking. ' Shut up!' and I reply.

" Sorry I said your food is great." She looks down slightly and says

" You haven't touched the fish." I answer her.

" Its because I never ate fish with chopsticks before." She smiles.

" Oh." She holds up her chopsticks and says.

" You hold them like this." she then proceeds to pick up a piece of fish and I watch intently.

" That's how you eat the fish." I look at my own chopsticks and suddenly I can't remember what I had seen and still could not remember her name. " What's your name again?" She smiles and says,

" I'm Naomi dear." I find myself working to remember her name in my mind as I reply.

" Naomi," I nod,

" Thank you for the tip." Light smiles are filling the room and I wonder just what their smiling about; but I do not ask because I feel it is not my place to know.

I work my chopsticks in my hand to a better position and make a grab for the fish on the plate. The fish breaks apart easily but I lose the piece. I feel my determination become renewed and I attack the piece of fish with my chopsticks. I can't help my satisfaction as I take the piece of fish and put it within my mouth. The fish was soft within my mouth and it had a tangy taste that had a hint of lemon.

" This fish tastes amazing." Naomi replies to me.

" Well I'm glad you like my cooking." I look up and smile at her. I realize there is a lot I don't know about the Japanese culture and there's much more I know nothing about when it comes to Konoha's culture. I find I'm not the only one in my head who feels as I do as I hear in my mind a first soprano voice who had a soft tone as she said. _' I don't know anything about Konoha either.' ' Nodoka?'_ I ask in my mind as I eat. The voice whispers back. _' Yes?'_ I slightly shake my head and mentally _. ' I was just unsure of who I was hearing.'_ a picture of a small warm smile enters my mind and then I find myself no longer in control.

She found herself in control once again and looked around the table. ' Sam must not be in control right now.' she thought as she took a bite of the fish and placed it within her mouth. Her eyes widen slightly and she blinks.

Suddenly I'm in control of myself again and I lightly shake my head. The older lady asks me with worry . "Is there something wrong, Samantha-san?" I shake my head and I answer.

" I'm just having a little trouble with my head is all."

All movement stops when I finished my words and I see them all looking at me. The eldest woman asks me.

" What kind of head trouble are you having?" I find myself digging a hole as I answer.

" I'm dealing with my schizophrenia right now." The eldest woman furrows her brow and asks.

" Schizophrenia?" I clarify.

" I hear voices and see things that aren't there." she finds herself… I feel myself switching personalities erratically as I heard.

" Well you're not the only one who deals with Illness." I had to fight to not mention my personalities and lightly I express my discomfort.

" Why are you guys staring at me?" My voice is light and I can't help but change my mentality as I say.

" I'm sorry I'm struggling with my personality's as well." I look at Asami and she has her eyes wide and her mouth dropped. I realize that many people here don't deal with mental health patients here and I know I can't dig myself out of my grave.

" I'm sorry I shouldn't have said anything."

" We are not the only ones that have to deal with this, disorder." I have forgotten the name of the eldest woman; but she spoke as if they really did deal with this disorder. She looked to Asami and I found myself understanding their situation a little bit more. Asami must deal with the same disorder. She shook her head and said.

" She couldn't possibly understand." I smiled and found myself saying in a deeper voice.

" Believe me, we do understand." The sentence came out of my mouth unexpectedly and I really ain't sure how she'll take it. She widens her eyes and states.

" You switched into a different personality." I could only reply in a higher pitch tone.

" We switch all the time." Then she asks me.

" How can you do that?" I ask her in another perspective.

" How can I control it?" The other perspective makes me sigh as I see her nod.

" We had to give up our names," I switched to a slightly deeper tone.

" We had to give up our uniqueness." And finally I finished.

" But that is the only way she allows us 'out'." The last personality was making me tremble and I could not find a calm as fear trickles into my mind. _'She couldn't understand.'_ those words repeated in my mind and I said.

" Perhaps I don't understand you as you are now, but I understand the gist of what you'er going through." She gave me a confused look as she repeated.

" 'gist'?" I nodded,

" That means that I understand generally what your going through." I remember too add.

" It can mean other things but that's what it means in this context." lights went on as I find myself switched into another personality ' I can't believe my luck.' Asami was smiling at me. Then we realized that she was looking to her grandmother.

" We didn't believe we'd meet someone with the same problem as Asami." I smile and say

" Well, here I am. I can help if you wish." While I believe I can help Asami I find myself being reprimanded by Sakura. 'You do realize we need to get a job right?' I nodded and I hear the elder lady ask.

" Is something wrong?" Likely digging myself a grave I told her.

" One of my personalities is reprimanding me for offering help." They furrowed their eyes and finally I could remember the elder lady's name is Mitoko.

" What do you mean?" A light switch goes on in my brain as I answer.

" Well I need to get a job before the month's out." The lights in my mind warned me too late for the grave I was once again digging as Mitoko asked.

" Is miss Mitoka letting you stay for free?" I shake my head and find myself in the hands of another personality.

" No." He answered and kept me from revealing the bargain I made with Miss Mitoka. _' I tried my best to keep it hidden Sam. I can't guarantee the others will do the same.'_ he says and suddenly I am myself again.

Mitoko kept asking me questions and she probed me for information as we ate dinner and little else happens until it is the end of dinner and they become very serious.

" You've met the young boy haven't you?" I furrow my brow in confusion.

" You mean the one living in the apartment?" Mitoko replies,

" Yes that's right." I find myself crossing my legs and fighting not to whine about the pain that I felt within my legs.

" What do you think of the boy?" A soft thought comes to mind and I smile.

" He's a little bit rustic," I hear music lighlty playing within the backround and I smile.

" I don't believe I understand your term."

" Like being rusty, I think all he needs is a bit of polishing and he'd be a good boy." Asami retorts.

" Fat chance of that." I feel angry at her remark and feel it is made unjustly. " Hey now he's just a boy, everyone starts somewhere." Mitoko says with a rough voice.

" That boy has been nothing but trouble." She looks to me with a serious gaze.

" You'd do well to stay away from him." That made me begin to believe this lady was not as nice as I thought she was.

" He's just a boy, what harm can he do?" She is glaring at me and I find myself very intimidated by her.

" Much." I felt the serious nature of her answer and I found myself mentally agreeing for different reasons.

I know who he is. He is the container of the Nine Tailed Fox; but I also know he is a young boy who really wants to be loved just like any other boy his age. Life was not pleasant for him and right now my life wasn't pleasant either. How could I hate the boy who I knew would do great things? He didn't have parents to guide him so who was to say he really was a bad child?

At this moment I realize that I am not making friends with this family; but enemies who did seem to need my assistance. That would all be up to them though. I find myself standing up and saying in a calm collected voice.

" I am tired, may I be excused?" Naomi had already gathered the plates so all I could do was bow and say.

" Thank you for the lovely meal." Leaving quickly as I was excused I found myself alone in my apartment.

" Boy we really dug a grave with that family." A deep voice erupted from my mouth.

" Well It can't be as bad as almost revealing what Miss Motoka said not to." Light chuckles erupted from me and I find myself attacked by the isolation I felt. _' Just go to sleep.'_ I told myself. _' Everything will be fine if you just sleep.'_ both of my eyes had to adjust to the dark when I turned off the light thinking about being there for Naruto and what that might entail. My last coherent thought is thinking of being there for him despite knowing what a mess I would be getting into and remembering I still needed a job.


	4. Having to Make Confessions

Chapter 4

The next two days were agonizing because I had to wait for the results of the Academy and were more so because my schizophrenia was acting up. The voices were amplified and while I could not literally see the hallucinations around me I knew they were there. I had ended up wondering more than once if my disorders could be ignored by the Academy board or would they actually deny me because of them. Truth be told I knew very well one of the three requirements they had were to be ' Healthy both mind and body'. Now that never stopped Lee from becoming a shinobi in the least; but it could stop me if they deemed me unhealthy. The problem was I remembered this after I signed the sheet and they possibly have no idea I have schizophrenia or multiple personalities and I couldn't remember for the life of me if they actually had questions about such problems on the paper.

Those thoughts led me to my worried state of mind as I look at the Hokage Tower with slight apprehension. As I turn my eyes to the sky and pray I feel a little bit of relief and feel that there is a plan for me despite my sudden appearance to Konoha. That somehow, everything would be all right.

With that feeling within me I ventured inside the Hokage building. This time the place looked busy as there were people standing in a small line in front of the office desk and people sitting within the waiting area. I figure I actually need to check in at the desk so I join the line and wait as the people move to have their business attended too.

When it is finally my turn I find myself surprised. There is another lady sitting within the desk. This woman had her hair tied back into a bun and had a slightly looser looking kimono dress on. Underneath I could see a plan green shirt rested underneath.

" How can I help you?" I return my eyes to her face as I say.

" I'm here for a meeting with Iruka Umino." There is a type writer on the desk and she types on it.

" Ok, let me tell someone to let him know." I nod my head and thank her and I leave to wait in the waiting area.

The waiting area has at least three chairs up on the walls facing the east wall of the room and tables were set in between the sets of three chairs. In the middle of the waiting area there are more chairs set up with their backs against each other. I decided to seat myself in one of those middle seats away from other people as I never liked sitting near strangers and I wait there as I watch people come in and leave from the receptionist's desk.

I admit I feel pretty bored watching the people come and go and would have much rather read something instead; but when I see Iruka come down from the stairs I feel a lot of relief and stand up to meet him. He walks to me and I can't help but feel some worry for his words. " You have to come with me." While I did want to ask why I decided not to. I follow Iruka to the stairs and through the strange hallway. We passed a lot of doors and when we stop I find it alarming. Iruka had stopped at a door and knocked on it. I find myself very unnerved and very nervous as I hear Iruka say.

" I have the woman here." I hear a muffled reply and I follow Iruka into the room.

The room has windows directly across the room and a desk with a old man in white robes sitting at the desk with his head resting on his hands. The desk itself was piled with papers. I know from the man's clothing that he is the Hokage; the leader of the village. " You may leave us Iruka." I look to Iruka as I see him reply.

" But Hokage sir." The Hokage interrupts him,

" I'm quite capable of taking care of her, Iruka. be sure of that." Iruka nods and leaves through the door and I look back to the Hokage.

He looks at me with old eyes and I feel very nervous.

" Come closer." I comply to him though I feel my nervousness hype. He moves a hand and digs in his desk. He pulls out a pipe and asks.

" Do you mind?" I reply.

" No sir." He leans slightly in his chair and I can't help but ask.

" Are you interviewing me?" He replies as he lights his pipe with a match.

" In a manner of speaking." I can't help but ask.

" Why do you need to interview me?" Warning lights went on within my mind as he answers.

" We need answers from you."

" But isn't this something for Ibiki to do?" He simply asks.

" Ibiki?" I ask him.

" He isn't in charge of interrogation?" I realize at this moment I revealed something I shouldn't have known and I cannot figure out how to answer the Hokage.

" How do you know Ibiki?" I could only reply with an intelligent

" Um." We couldn't figure out how to get out of this situation and when he states.

" I'm waiting for an answer." I realize that I couldn't really dig myself out of this situation, that any excuse I make would bring more trouble. So I answered with a sigh.

" I really don't know how to explain it to you." He doesn't give me much of an answer other than.

" I'm listening."

" I learned about him from an outside source, you could say it was public." I then quickly try to save the people who work in that department.

" No one from your agency leaked information, sir. I only learned about him because of where I'm from." He has a very stone like expression as he asks.

" Where are you from?" I sigh again and say.

" I'm from an alternate reality." I quickly say

"I know it sounds crazy but that is the truth sir." He simply says.

" Explain."

" There are other realities that exist and I came from one of the more different ones." He nods and asks.

" Did you come to this reality on purpose?" I answered.

" No sir, I was simply walking to school when a dark hole showed up and sucked me through!" I couldn't help but express my anger because of what happened was unexpected and quite unfair.

" So you weren't here by your own accord?"

" No sir. I didn't know that could happen in my own world until it did." I decided to add.

" You could say I was a victim of a space time jutsu and just ended up here as an effect." He took a deep drag of his pipe and asked me.

" Are you certain this is true?"

" No sir. I really don't know what happened. All I know is that I'm here and I'm stuck here unless someone could figure out a way to take me home!" Realizing I'm too expressive I bow my head and I apologize.

" I'm sorry." I hear nothing for a few moments and I look back up at him.

He regards me with a serious look and I have the feeling that things will not end well for me. He asks me

" Where are you from?" I answer him.

" The United States of America. Thats where I'm from in my reality." While I answer his other questions I feel dread fill within me as if my life would no longer be my own and that he regarded me as being mentally unstable. He raises an eyebrow asks.

" Really now?" I could feel the life drain out of me as I answered him.

" Yes sir."

He stands up and looks out of the window and says.

" You're not the only one who traveled to a different reality." My jaw drops as I'm dumbfounded by his words.

"Wait, you know somebody else who's had this happen to them?" I feel my hope return to me as well as my disbelief.

" Yes." he replied and I find myself impulsively asking.

" Who is this person? If you don't mind answering." He looks back at me and smiles.

" I am the one who I speak of." I couldn't help my stutter in the beginning of my sentence as I ask. " W-wait. You're the one who crossed worlds?" I feel astounded and relieved to know that I'm not the only one who has experience with this kind of situation.

" In a manner of speaking." I can't help but express my relief as I say.

" Well that just makes my day better!" He raises a hand and gently says

" Settle down." I try to calm myself as I didn't realize I was being too much.

"I'm sorry sir. I just, I thought no one else had gone through this and that I would be thrown into a loony bin." I notice my dialect had change as I said 'loony bin' only because the Hokage asks me to clarify with a simple.

" Loony Bin?" I realize he didn't know what I was talking about so I decided to clarify. " I mean mental hospital or asylum." He says to me.

"We don't have that kind of hospital for the mentally disturbed." I found myself very relieved and yet curious.

"Where do you keep them then?" he answers me smoothly.

"We usually let the families of such people take care of them and offer help when it is necessary." I give a sigh of relief and say.

"Oh that's good cause' it would suck if I had to go there, to one of the asylums." He says nothing and for a moment I thought I would have to reveal my disorders to him. He turns to look back at the window and he asks.

" Do you have a place to stay?" I answer him.

" Yes, I just don't have the money to pay for it." He sighs and ask me.

" How much of an allowance would you say is reasonable?"

" I'm not sure, I'm not familiar with your kind of currency." He returns his gaze to me.

" Sir, I don't mind accepting your help; but isn't it against your job as Hokage to pick favorites?" It seems like he regards my words and answers me a minute later.

" You're not from here, and it would seem you have no job experience, correct?" I reply. " Yes sir." He says

" I'm only going to allow this until you become a shinobi or are forced to a different carrier." Despite the pressure of his words I find myself feeling relieved because I believe I'm not taking advantage of his kindness.

" I will keep your origins a secret as well as your, disorders." I couldn't help but ask out of confusion.

" How did you know about my disorders?" He reached into the desk and pulled a pile of papers out and placed them on the table.

" You made note of them within the files you filled out." I was confused.

"Aren't you only supposed to allow people with healthy minds and body into the program?" He simply says.

" Now I'm sure you're aware that Konoha isn't aware of your status nor is it aware of these different disorders. You could say that you never had any because they aren't diagnosed by the doctors here."

" Isn't that lying?" He shook his head.

" It's not if we don't have it diagnosed and besides that you need to learn how to read and write. The only place you're going to be able to do that is by going through the academy." I couldn't help but question his motives and ask.

" Why are you on my side?" He gives a sigh and answers me.

" When I crossed worlds I didn't know what happened to me, I was helped by the locals of that world even when there was no reason too. When I returned I thought it was a good genjutsu and I was left for dead; but with you here I'm proven wrong. I cannot help you other than giving you this chance to become a shinobi. If anything, you should only stay in long enough to learn to read and write as it is your goal." I nodded and said.

" To be honest I have wanted to become a shinobi; especially one of konoha's shinobi." He asks me.

" How do you know of this world?" I answered him after a moment of thinking.

" I learned about your world through a series of movies, you could say your world was our entertainment. Through this show I learned about Konoha and some of the more important people here." Of course his world and our world have different technologies and therefore trying to explain anime would be confusing if not a strange concept. That didn't mean I wouldn't explain further should the question be asked. Which began to happen.

" Show?" I nodded.

" A Lot of the movies were sequenced one after another so in English we call it a show." He gives a stern.

" I see," He walked back to his chair and sat himself down within the chair. " How accurate is your information?" This is the time to admit something that had crossed my mind more than once before this whole mess began.

" Sir," I started out and took a breath for a moment to figure a way to explain the concept that I had come to understand.

" This world, is not exactly the same as it was within the movies. because I am here this world is dramatically changed, not only will it never be the same again. But it will continue to grow different because of my existence." I found my mind once again and tried to get to the point.

"What I mean is my information is technically invalid because this is not the same world as the movies." He rests his head on his intertwined hands once again.

" So you could not benefit me unless you knew the information was valid."

" I could still tell you the information I know, but whether or not it is true for this world is up for debate." I was worried that this conversation would come about, I have no problem helping this man because I believe he is as good as he was within the show; but what really worries me is if I would somehow become important within the politics that had already had a natural course and I already know I will not lie to this man, even if I wanted to.

He did ask me questions and many of which I didn't have the answer to because it involved people who I knew nothing about people. I was sure the people had places within the council of this city. I did tell him events I did know about; the deaths of the Uchiha clan, the forth shinobi war, the rise of Akatsuki and their plans for the jinjuriki ( jin-jur-i-key) and how the Jubi ( or ten tailed demon) could arise again because of the plans of Madara and how he could manipulate the Akatsuki to his plans. He was not pleased to be informed of this possible events( I wouldn't have been either).

" So when could this all come to pass?" The whole confession I did left me nervous of his decisions and I could only answer.

" Ten to twenty five years because these events will come to pass slowly."

" So we have time." I couldn't help myself from saying

" I suggest you take my information with caution, I cannot say that this, that these events will actually come to pass. This is not the same world as the world I had seen. Mainly because no one has traversed within their realm of existence like I have. As far as I know this world and that world are very different."

" So some of these things won't come to pass?"

" That very well might happen." he hums a moment and asks me.

" What would you do?" I answer him as honestly as I could.

" You cannot change what you don't know about. All I know and we all know is the present. I would keep this knowledge in mind but give it a benefit of a doubt." though I remind myself that this is not my world shinobi must consider all possibilities and I say quickly after.

" though I am not a shinobi and I know shinobi benefit from paranoia rather than be hindered by it." A worrying thought came to my mind; what if he told his fellow council men? And that made me also say. " I recommend keeping this information to yourself as much as possible. To many other peoples ears what I have told you is practically crazy talk. There is no guarantee that it will happen at all really." He then asks me another question.

" Why haven't you tried to stop these events from happening?" I'm in shock of his words and my mouth moves before I can stop it.

" How do you expect me to do anything? You're talking to a foreigner here! I can't stop a massacre from happening let alone stop the Jubi from reviving! All I know how to deal with is the present. I have no idea how to stop those things and I can't even if I wanted too…" I sigh and feel my personality switch ever so slightly.

My eyes had turned away from the Hokage for a good while now and could only hear him reply.

" Samantha, you have done something. By telling me these events you have possibly saved many lives. Things I would have never guessed would come to pass and you have showed me these things willingly." I could only look up at him with surprise. " Do not forget, you have the will of fire within you, and you can do more than what you think you can." He has a small smile on his face as he comments.

" Before you came here no one knew of what could happen within the future; but now we have a chance to prepare and it's all thanks to you." My modesty took control as I say.

" Well I couldn't lie to you. I would have never lived it down." His next words strike within me. " And that will perhaps be your downfall. As a shinobi you tend to have to lie about things, whether it would be about vital information to telling your enemy you don't feel pain." He stands up again and holds his hands behind his back. " Of course you realize I mean it's for the benefit of our village, and not for oneself." I nodded and replied. " I understand sir." He nods " Good. I'll be sending your money through the mail within the week. Is that alright?" I nod and reply.

" Of course, as long as I get it." I couldn't help myself as I said.

" It would be nice to get it sooner, I've been without food for most of the week." He smiles as I feel nervous from mentioning my predicament.

" I'll get it in to you tomorrow then." I bow forward deeply and thank him.

" Thank you so much Hokage sir." I hear him answer.

" No, I should be thanking you." A knock issues on his door and I hear.

" Hokage sir, the counsel is waiting for your arrival." I look up at the Hokage to see him nod. He looks to me and says.

" Well this is where I must end our meeting."

" Of course, you have things to do. I understand." He gives me a smile and does the unexpected. He holds a hand out to me. I walk up to his desk and accept his handshake while trying to keep in mind that my clothing most definitely smells bad by now. So I attempt to keep my stench to myself by keeping my arms close to my sides.

He doesn't react but for all I know he could smell me. Which leaves me to figure out how to clean not only myself but my clothing.

I hear the door open and I turn my eyes to the door. A young man with short brown hair enters the room wearing the same style green vest.

" Sir, I'm to escort you to the meeting." I look to the Hokage and he nods then looks to me.

" I trust you know how to exit the building?" I nod.

" I should be able to find my way back. Don't worry about me." The memory of this place was fresh within my mind. The worst that could happen is me entering a room I've never been in before.

" You should expect your answer by the end of the week. If not then than check in on Monday." I nod and while it made me nervous to ask I did ask one final question

" What should I expect the answer to be? A paper or something?" The man next to him had apparently wanted to speak but the Hokage silenced him.

" You will get a green card and note by your acceptance into the academy you realize that we take matters seriously." I nodded and answered

" Yes I understand."

" Is that everything?"

" Yes, that's all." Truthfully that wasn't everything, but because he was needed elsewhere there was not much more room for discussion.

" I expect you to be here Monday morning if everything else fails to follow." I nodded and began reviewing that information within my mind.

He nods and begins to leave the room and I follow after him and his guard. We part our separate ways when we enter the hall way and I was left to think over this event as I navigated through the building.

Questions and worries fill my mind as I walk down the hallway. How does he plan to use this information? Will he use it at all? A more important question also flooded my mind. What if he doesn't actually believe me? He said that there are no facilities for the mentally deranged; but surely there was something they did. Was lobotomy still used here? Was it used at all? What would he do?

I am basically left with one option; to not worry about it. Of course this was easier said than done. Not only do I now have to worry about rent. I also must worry about food, how to get clean cloths, and how the hell I'm going to be able to read any of the stupid labels!

Now my only real option was to wait for the results, which pretty nerve racking. In fact this whole process has been nerve wracking. Not only that, My schizophrenia has begun to become more volatile as its type of logic is trying to consume me. The thought of food also consumes my mind. My clothing is going to start becoming harder to wear the longer I have to put off eating. Who's to say I'll be able to afford a good meal with the money I'll receive?

How the hell am I going to survive until Monday?


	5. Stolen Undergarments and Park time

1/15/2016- Hello readers this is AnglesListener. I'm only going to put these author notes here to let people know that I've updated the chapters. I will say right now that this wont be my only time updating chapters and I'm sorry to say that I don't do everything that the Fanfiction website requires you to do. I will say right now and In the begining of my story that I try to update every weekend whether it would be Saturday or Sunday.

Anyway this Chapter update is in the park scene with Naruto Uzumaki and Samantha Porter and some rewording.

1/16/2016- This chapter edit is for the scene Naruto talks about the academy with Samantha.

* * *

While I don't mind the summer heat too much I already know how dire my clothing situation is getting and figure that regardless of the resources my clothes had to be cleaned today.. My only problem is that I needed to have some soap.

So I enter my home hoping to god someone left a bar of soap within the bathroom. Of course I wasn't looking in my toilet room as they apparently felt it was necessary to separate the toilet from the bathroom. When I finish taking off my shoes I head into the hallway and open the door onto the right. I enter my bathroom and actually give it a good look this time around.

The actual bathing room had a white tiled floor and a big wooden square bathtub. The tub was located within the back left corner from where I stood and there was a wooden floor to its left; which had some wooden stairs attached to it. There was a facet that was attached to the wall on the left. The only thing missing from it was a sink.

Contrary to the belief this is actually a normal Japanese bathroom. I can actually remember some apartments didn't actually have bathing facilities; which is where the invention of the bathhouse came in. As far as I know anyway.

The first place I decide to look was over by the bath tub. Which was a lot taller than any bathtub I've seen in my life. To be honest it looked more like a hot tub. I climb its steps and take a look within. The tub was white on the inside and had a deep middle. and there was at least two white enclaves where soap could lie. Thankfully there was one light blue bar of soap sitting in the left corner of the tub that was farther from me.

" Oh thank god!" As I climbed in the tube I thank him feverishly under my breath. I take the soap bar in my hand and hold it up in a triumphant tirade and look to the door.

" Look what I got! Soap!" I smile at the hallucination of Sakura there. Truth be told I never really see anything physically there. The thought of her existence here and by my side was what kept me going even before I came here. And I knew very well what would happen should it all go wrong.

Still, I smiled at this hallucination of Sakura Haruno as I heard her call me out of the tub and beckon me with a hand motion. I couldn't help my goofy grin. I began to hear words from her; but I found myself half ignoring her words as I climbed out the tub. Climbing out of the tub turns out to be surprisingly easy feat.

" With this I can clean these cloths." I hear within my mind. _'Are you listening?'_ I looked into the general direction of the hallucinations presence and ask.

" I'm sorry what did you say?" I'm looking at the toilet room and living rooms direction for the moment I asked my question; but then looked to the right at the kitchen and hear her ask.

' _I said how are you going to clean those clothes?'_ I look at my cloths and back at the kitchen sink.

" Well I'm going to use the kitchen sink to wash my clothing and my soap." I walk to the kitchen and proceeded to take my top off.

My logic is to get my undergarments cleaned first and just before I take off my bra I remember that there is a window in the kitchen and I can't help but reprimand myself.

" You dumb ass! There's something called a bathroom! Moron!" And so I walk back to the bathroom and take off my undergarments. Of course I put my jeans and my t-shirt back on myself since I didn't really want to streak around the house.

So I take my undergarments and place them within my kitchen sink and begin the task of washing my clothing by turning on the hot water. I begin to wash my underwear under the water despite it being cold. I take the soap and begin to rub it on the wet garment. I'm not overly pleased with the state of my underwear as the smell is unpleasant. Of course it wouldn't be so bad if I had more clothing and I had toilet paper.

As I wash my clothing I became numb within my mind. I had a relaxing time without the onslaught of the voices; which was a miracle in itself.

When I had finish scrubbing the articles of clothing I let them soak within the hot water and go into my living room. I look at the window and study the light that falls onto my floor.

Different ways of drying my clothing comes into my mind. I knew sunlight would dry my clothing easily; but I couldn't help pondering using my oven to dry off my clothing faster.

I thought that if I would use the oven I could get my clothes dried faster and would plausibly have dry cloths. Then again It would probably make my house smell bad and I really didn't know if I would like the results. So I dismissed the idea and came to the conclusion that I could just dry my clothes in the sunlight of the day.

Then comes a moment where I don't actually know what to do; but I was easily reminded of my hygiene predicament. So I took my soap from the kitchen and went within the bathing room.

I took to washing myself with the facet as it was the closest thing to a shower I would get to have. As I washed I had to fight the paranoia of being watched by my hallucinations. When I had rinsed off my body I had decided to run me a bath to see how different the tubs were from the American ones. There was a simple rubber plug sitting next to the tub so I actually could run a bath. I turn on the water and adjusted its temperature to be pleasantly hot water and not burning hot. I take that moment to attempt relax.

It feels pretty amazing too have my body fully covered by water as the tub I had at home didn't work as well. With this tub I kind of have to stand within the tub instead of lay down.

I find myself looking up at the ceiling and letting my thoughts wander; but it isn't long that my mind begins to be infested with paranoia once again. At this time I feel as if my male personalities and my hallucinations were staring at my body as I bathed. I do try my best to ignore this feeling as it isn't logical; but it isn't very long when I decide I had to leave the tub and return my cloths to my body.

And so with that feeling in mind I got out of the tub and proceed to put my pants and shirt back on. After that I go back to the kitchen and checked my undergarments.

The water filled the metal sink only half way and when I dip my hand into the water it feels lukewarm. I come to the conclusion that my cloths are done so I unplugged the water stopper and proceeded to rinse off my underwear and bra.

After I finished rinsing and wringing out the clothing I decided to set them in the sunlight on my living room floor. Once again I find myself unsure of what I can do.

"I don't have dishes so I can't do that. My clothes aren't dry so I can't leave." I look up at the ceiling and say.

" Damn, I don't know what to do lord!" Now I do not yell intentionally but even my voice is loud to my ears. I hear a muffled,

" Keep it down!" from my neighbors. I guess it was from the neighbors I've met so I reply apologetically

" Sorry!"

I came to the conclusion that I need to write for awhile since it isn't a loud activity. So I take my heavy bag and take out a yellow notebook I had for random writing and I take out a mechanical pencil to write with. I sit next to my bag and begin to contemplate what I wanted to write.

In all of my seven years of writing Fan Fiction has been my main desire of writing. In all of those years writing Fan Fictions about the anime Naruto had been what I did for most of it; but now that I was here all I could really think about is how strange this world is. Its people seem nice enough; but how much does one really know? _'Now that I think about it I really don't know anything about this world.'_ As much as I want to write a Fan Fiction I see that I want to write in my diary more. Or that's what my mind is inspired to write about. So with a small pout and small frown I put away my writing notebook and take out my diary.

The book itself was small and mostly a light green. On its front it had little white flowers placed around a series of words " The best medicine in the whole wide world is a mother's hug." and behind those brown words were red ribbons flowing. They were not actual ribbons; but they were printed on the book just the same. The book has a stretchy elastic band that kept the book shut and on top of the book a red ink pen sat.

Taking the pen off the top of the book I slip the brown elastic off the book and open to my pink ribbon marked page. Opening to a new page I uncap my pen and begin to write.

 _Dear Diary,_

 _This has been a crazy experience let me tell you. Today I met the Hokage. THE FORTH Hokage. He said that he would help me out with being accepted within the academy and He actually believes me! At least, I think he does. He is a shinobi and they do lie. But I don't think calling him a liar would solve my crazy story._

 _God there's so much to say. I've been accepted into the Academy! Or at least I believe that. I don't know what I would do if they said no after all of that. God what am I going to do? People are going to know something is up if i know too much. Please don't tell me your actually writing this down._

 _Furrowing my brows I write a reply._

 _So what if I am?_

 _The rest of my mind goes blank and I'm suddenly without any idea of what to write. But then my mind reminds me of a topic I've wanted to write._

 _God I wonder what Sakura is like here. Diary, you know as well as I do that she should exist here. Even when I still hallucinate about her. And I hear her voice, and I have a personality of her lurking around._

Suddenly I hear a knock on the door and I notice that the light in the room had became a sun setting red. ' Who the hell is that?' I stand up and pull my zipper up. I walk to the door and open it.

Little Naruto was standing at my door way kind of nervous and curious.

" Hey." I found myself feeling awkward and closed the door enough to hide my underwear drying within my house. I replied back awkwardly.

" Hey." He was wearing a white shirt with green shorts and the quirky little blue sandals every shinobi seemed to wear. He shifts around where he stands for a moment silently with expecting eyes. I couldn't help but ask.

" Is there something you need?" He mutters something under his breath.

" What?" He mutters a little louder and I still can't hear him.

" I can't hear you." He gives me this angry look and yells.

" I want you to play with me!" I raise my eyebrows with surprise. _' He wants to play with_ _ **me**_ _?'_ I give a sigh, look away and run a hand through my hair nervously as I try to think of something to say. " Wow…" I return my gaze to him and ask him a question I'm pretty sure I know the answer too. " You don't have anyone else to play with do you?"

" Everybody else just acts like I'm not there or says mean things to me." I sigh once more and think of a solution to this predicament. For the moment of silence we had I came to the solution of giving him what he wants.

" I'll tell you what, when my laundry is done I'll play with you; how's that sound?" He crosses his arms and gives me an angry look.

" How do I know you're not lying to me to just get me away?" I furrow my brow once again and say.

" Why do you think I'm lying?" He gives me this frustrated look.

" Your just going to do the same thing everyone else does aren't you?" I don't like what I hear from him and decide to investigate with questions.

" What do the other people do?" Unlike an unwilling adult he answers me without holding back as far as I can tell.

" They tell me they'll play with me and they never do! Or they just act like I'm not there!"

" Gees, I'm sorry that's happened to you. Dude that really sucks." He gives me this confused look and asks me.

" What does 'dude' mean?" I realize then I slipped dialect and I quickly go to explain it.

" It's a way of saying guy or a way of referring to someone when talking to them."

" Oh." He looks to understand what I mean. I can't help but get the feeling he didn't believe me.

" You still don't believe me do you?" He folds his arms and shakes his head. I sigh once more and then say. " Well I am doing my laundry right now, see?" I open the door more and show him my undergarments that were drying. I turned my head away from him and look at my clothing.

Suddenly he is inside my house and looking closer at my underwear.

" Hey! I didn't invite you in here!" he leans over my underwear and I can't help but panic a little.

" Don't touch my underwear!" I say seriously as I walk over to him.

" Why does your underwear look kind of yellow there?" He points to the bottom of my underwear where a pad would go and I feel my embarrassment rise to my face. I didn't want him to see that! I can't help that my underwear does get stained whether its from blood or just being used for too long. That doesn't mean its any easier telling him about it. I never intended for him to see the state of my undergarments.

" I've had that underwear for a long time. Now could you please get away from my underwear?" he looks at me then back at the undergarment.

He quickly takes my underwear and I lean over quickly to grab him. Only I miss and he runs out the door.

" Hey everybody the old lady has old underwear!" I jog out of the apartment just in time to see Mitoko and a young man with long hair climbing the steps. Naruto runs up to Mitoko and yells,

" Look at the old lady's underwear!" I yell at him as he forces my garment into the woman's face.

" Naruto! Give that back right now!" Mitoko gives him an angry look then forces the lingerie out from her face. She looks at me with an angry insulted gaze.

" I told you to be wary of this boy did I not? And why does he have your undergarments?" I approach her and reply quickly.

" I'll explain later. Naruto, give me the underwear!" He runs off before I can catch him and he runs up to the man who had just finished climbing the stairs.

" Look at these!" I look to Naruto and watch as I walk up to the man look to me, to the underwear, back to me and then collapses backward right in front of Naruto!

Inspite of that event I have enough time to grab Naruto's arm. Anger is raging in my mind; but I still manage to temper it to a firm grip. " Naruto. Give me back my underwear now." He looks up me with a flash of fear or surpise. Then as if nothing had happened he turns away from me and holds out my under wear in front of me. As I quickly take it back from him he says.

" What do I need with your stupid underwear anyway.". My temper mostly fades away once the garment is back in my possession; though I'm still slightly angry. Despite this I decided to thank him none the less.

" Thank you." A flash of a surprise comes so quick to his face I'm unsure if I had even seen it. Looking to the unconscious man on the ground I lean over and snap my fingers a few times.  
" Hey." I tap is cheeks a few times and he starts coming too.

" Hey, you ok?" He comes to and looks back at me and it looks like I've made process with him. Then the white skinned man rolls his eyes and passes out again right there. _' He's a lost cause.'_ I decide to just leave him there. He didn't seem to be in any danger

I turn back to Mitoko and she still has an angry scowl on her face. I walk towards her and she asks me. " Why was that boy with your undergarments? What are you even doing with that boy?"

" First of all, that boy is Naruto Uzumaki. Second of all, he stole my underwear from my apartment." I'm still mad because of what Naruto did and her attitude towards the boy is unsettling and upsetting to me.

" I told you to stay away from that boy!"

" I don't have to listen to you I hope you know that. And your attitude is starting to tick me off more then I already am so if you could just talk to me when I'm not fuming that will be good." I leave before she can reply and I hear Naruto call.

" Hey wait!" feeling exasperated I turn to Naruto and ask as tempered as I can while clenching my arms.

" What Naruto?" He has run up to me and he surprises me with a question.

" What's your name?" I take in a deep breath and I find myself calming down slightly

" My name is Samantha." I turn away from him and walk back to my apartment with a suddenly calm mind. _' I supose I forgive the brat.'_ I think as I walk. While I still feel at least annoyance with him I can't find it in my heart to be angry anymore.

" Hey wait!" I hear Naruto call and I look back at him as I was about to close my door. I give him an expectant gaze.

" Aren't you going to play with me?" I find myself annoyed and the anger return just as easily as it had left; despite this I keep a tempered tongue.

" I told you that I needed to do my laundry and that I would play with you after word correct?" he nods and I continue. " Because you decided to show my underwear off I decided I might not play with you after all." He gives me an offended look and says. " Hey that isn't fair!"

" It is after what you did. That was embarrassing and I have the right to be angry at you! If that is how you treat people then I can see why people don't want to play with you." Now I didn't say that to hurt him. I only said that to get him thinking. He crossed his arms and pouted right in front of me. I don't plan to relent easily even with his angry look.

" If you want people to play with you then maybe you shouldn't do those things." I go to shut the door and for a moment I thought I saw him about to cry and because of that my heart wouldn't let me close the door all the way. I sigh and open it back up again. He's gone from my door and about to go into is apartment.

" Naruto!" He looks back at me with teary eyes.

" I'll play with you if you do two things." He wipes his eyes and I go on telling him what he needed to hear. He closes his open door and starts walking back to me.

" One, you need to let me finish my laundry and two you need to stop pulling pranks like that ok?" He wipes his hands on his cloths and asks in a soft but hopeful voice. " Then will you play with me?"

" Yes then I will play with you." I open my door more and say. " Do you want in?" He gives a simple

" Yea." and he slips in. I shut the door not wanting to see Mitoko's reaction.

" There isn't any food so don't ask me for anything to eat. Theirs water but you'll have to drink straight from the facet." I turn to the living room and he leaves into the kitchen.

" Wait so there's no food here?"

" Nope. I wish there was." I hear him yell through the apartment

" Don't you have any money?" I walk to the kitchen and I see him checking the kitchen cupboards.

" I don't have any money." He looks at me for a moment and looks to regard me. Then returns to looking around.

" So what have you been eating?"

" Except for the one meal I got from Miss Mitoko I haven't eaten at all." He looks back at me with surprise.

" Don't you have a job or something?" I find no harm in telling him my plans.

" I plan on joining the academy if they'll have me." _' He doesn't seem to understand what a shinobi is.'_ I shake my head slightly as I try to fight the oncoming train of thoughts appearing within my mind.

" The academy? But your too old!" I leave the kitchen to place my underwear back to their drying place on the floor in front of my window.

" They technically never said I couldn't apply. Nor did they say I couldn't attend." The feelings I had with the academy were gone as was my determination to go. My head was reeling with many thoughts of my different voices and my personalities as it is apart of my schizophrenia symptoms. Within that moment I have a thought of temptation. To kick Naruto out of here and to deal with this myself. It's all I can do to keep my sanity as I hear Naruto ask.

" Are you ok?" I place my hand on my head and hold it as I say.

" I'm just experiencing a little bit of head trouble that's all."

" Hey are you alright?" I hear Sakura's voice so clearly it makes me tear up as I look for her within the living room.

My mind tells me that she is there, that she is standing to Naruto's right and that she shows me a concerned look. Yet I physically see nothing, she is not there. In truth I know very well that she didn't exist there with me. _'She exist with her family, not with me.'_ That thought penetrates through me and I somehow begin to find my sanity. The thought also reminds me that this world is a lot more different then my own.

" Naruto, tell me about the academy."

" How do you know I go to the academy?" He exclaims and I find myself smiling.

" You just seem like a kid that would do that." At this point I was trying my hardest not to reveal anything that I knew about his future or at least his possible future. That sentence though wasn't a lie I knew that as much; but my mind returns back to the imagined presence of an Older Sakura Haruno

Despite my hallucination of Sakura being slightly realistic for a hopeful dream. I have to kill my heart's feelings for her at his moment to gain some sanity. Even if my mental picture of her has given me solace more then once before now. I knew very well that I was getting to my limit of mentally tolerating the insanity of my schizophrenia.

I decide to sit down by my drying cloths as he begins to talk about the school.

" The Academy is so awesome!" He starts off and I feel a need to honestly try to listen.

" We get to learn how to fight and we learn how to become a Shinobi! My teacher Iruka-sensei is kind of mean, he always gets mad at me for not doing my homework." I cannot help my curiosity and ask.

" What about your classmates?" He gives me this big smile.

" There's this girl named Hinata and she's kind of weird. She always talks weird; but she's really cute! Then theirs Sakura-chan; she's kind of cute too but then she's into this guy named Sasuke and I really hate him."

He goes on to talk about the other people within the class and I feel pleased to be informed that the same children were still around. Sasuke was still that grump of a boy. Naruto liked Hinata; but he also liked Sakura so it wasn't bad. He seemed to be more informed about things when it came to the actual fighting techniques for his age; but anything that was academic he couldn't really explain to me. As he talked he wandered from the topic of the academy to what girls he liked to his favorite type of ramen then went back to talking about girls. Around this point I knew he was rambling and time went by pretty fast. And I admit I really needed the distraction.

" Hinata has to be the most prettiest girl I've ever seen. I mean I've seen other cute girls but they all don't like me. She at least talks to me. She does it weird though. She always does this weird thing where she repeats parts of words many times and it gets annoying sometimes." I came to the point where I checked my undergarments and found that they were dry. I look to Naruto and call him to attention as he is about to say something.

" Naruto." He gives me a startled look and asks.

" What?"

" My laundry is dry; but it's dark outside right now." He begins to look sullen and I continue on with my question.

" Do you still want me to play with you?" He gives me this look of surprise and I find myself smiling at his suddenly excited demeanor.

" Yea! Let's go to the park! I bet it will be so cool in the dark!" I can't help but smile at his happy excitement.

" Ok, well let me put these on and then we'll go ok?" I walk passed Naruto and I go to my toilet room to change.

" Uh, don't you have other clothes to wear or something?"

" No, these and the clothes I'm wearing are the only clothes I have."

" So you weren't wearing underwear?" He exclaims and I answer through the door.

" You see why I didn't want to go out before?" I could feel heat rise to my cheeks as I put on my undergarments. For a random moment I decide to look into the mirror and study my reflection.

I look to have brown eyes but I've seen them become a golden brown in some lights. my face had a few scabs here and there from picking. My face is still kind of chubby though I'm sure I've seen it be slightly more. my nose is small but not super small that it doesn't compliment my face. My eye brows are big; but that's because I never saw a reason to trim them. Too much of a hassle to me. My hair was messy for being curly. It only curled around my face and it didn't do much curling. My hair could be mistaken for brown but its a dishwater blond and taking a moment to analyze it i can still see its blond tone though its faint. When it comes to my face i have been feeling neutral about it. I don't hate it; but I don't like it. Right now though I could tell it looked like a mess and I'm pretty sure other people could tell.

' _Oh well, nothing much I can do about it.'_ I leave the bathroom and see Naruto with his arms folded looking a little annoyed.

" Sorry Naruto, didn't mean to be that long." He runs to the door and yells.

"Come on lets go!"

" Ok, but you lead the way I don't know where the park is." After putting on my boots I follow him out the door and into the dark outdoors of town.

The town does have lights though they came from different shops that were open or lights from people's houses. It doesn't make it hard to follow Naruto thought I do have to ask him more than once to slow down. He does call me old lady more than once and it surprises me that I don't feel offended.

When we arrived there were no kids and it was a simple little park. Monkey bars are there, a spinning contraption is there that I never learned the name of, there is some swings and there is a slide. The park was all gravel instead of being pavement or grass. There were no street lights directly inside of the park; though there was light post just outside on the farthest side. Big buildings enclosed this small park and there were streets on the side we arived and the opposite from me. Naruto runs to the park with giddy excitement.

For a moment I look up at the sky and I see stars that I do not recognize. No constellation I knew stuck out at me at that moment. In the very least I prayed that everything would be ok as I worried about the 'nightly predators' that women and children faced. Being with Naruto now makes me hope that something of this event is healing for the boy as I know he desperately needs it.

" I don't know what to do first!" I hear Naruto say and I return my gaze back to him. He's looking between the different play equipment and I begin to think about how this was not my job. A parent would take their children out to parks and play with them. At this moment I feel that I am overstepping my boundaries not only as an acquaintance but as someone who could potentially become his friend.

I thought about how I do not want to be his parent and how I don't want to be his guardian. Then I remember there are things that I know I shouldn't do with him because I know how much it could affect the future; but at the same time I know my heart wouldn't let that boy be ignored anymore then what he has been. I know I don't have to be nice to him or play with him and be that parent figure he wants. I know very well that he is looking for attention and this act with him is something he both craves and needs direly.

Yet while these thoughts run in the back in my mind. I can only feel these thoughts and feelings as a vague understanding. At this moment in time, as I walk to Naruto as he demands to be pushed on the swing, I will follow my heart and willingly fulfill that desire if that is what he wants. The kindness in my heart will not let me turn a blind eye at this time.

So I come up behind Naruto where he sat within the swing.

" Ok Naruto, I'm going to lift you up in the swing and pull you back ok?"

" Can you do that underdog thing?"

" I actually don't know how too." I pull his swing back and back up with it. and when I got him back as high as I could I released him. He cried out with a happy demeanor as I pushed him on the swing. He exclaimed happily with every push I gave. He sounds so happy that my eyes attempt to form tears as I know that I'm doing something right. I did this for him for awhile; but despite my attempt to keep with it my arms wore out pretty quickly. I could feel exaustion burn in my arms as I had to relent.

" Hey Naruto I got to have a break. My arms are killing me." I hear Naruto give out a whine.

" Aw! But I really like when you push me!" He didn't have to tell me twice. With his happy exclamations I am quick to try something else to bring joy to that boy.

" Why don't we go to the spinner? I'll spin ya around for awhile." He gets out of the swing and looks back at me. His face is filled with joy I almost thought he was crying.

" Really?" He asks with such happiness his feelings become contagious and amplify my own positive feelings.

" Yea, go on. I'll get to ya in a second." He leaps in bounds over to the spinner and I walk my tired form to Naruto. The spinner is located to the entrance we took into the park in the corner. Its colored with faint yellow and red in a yellow red pattern in pie slices. He climbs up there with giddy excitement and I can tell by the sound that its metal. He sits himself in the center of the spinner and began yelling.

" Spin me! Spin me! Hurry up Grandma!" I found myself slightly annoyed once again by his name calling; and yet it was tempered with amazing pacience.

" Hold on Naruto," ' don't get your panties in a bunch.' " I'm getting there just give me a second." He fought with me just the same with the insistent demand.

I could not help that I feel my strength draining from me as I exerted my energy to this boy. Nevertheless I keep to my word and start to spin the boy with what strength I had.

He squealed happily as I spinned him around.

" Spin me faster Samantha! Spin me faster!" That was the first time I heard him use my name and I couldn't help but comment as I spun the spinner.

" Hey you finally decided to use my name for once! I'm spinning you the best I can though." He still demanded me to spin him and while I did spin him the best I could I had to give in to my fatigue once more and catch my breath. The spinner slowed and I hear Naruto ask.

" Hey why did you stop?" I was breathing hard and trying to fight the burning pain I kept feeling within my arms.

" Sorry Naruto, I'm just trying to catch my breath." He simply says.

" Wow, you really are like an old lady." My retort came easy to me.

" That's what happens when you don't eat for a week." He's silent as I look at him and I see what I think is a thoughtful expression on his face.

" So If I don't eat like for a week I'll get skinny and weak?" I answer him honestly.

" Yea, the body will end up being like that when you starve. But whats worse is being dehydrated." He scrunches his eye brows eyes.

" what does 'dehydrated' mean?"

" It means you don't have enough water in your body. You can't really survive very long without taking in some kind of liquid." He gives me a curious look and asks.

" How long can you live then?"

" Three days at the least or most. It depends on how you look at it." I sigh as I realize the exhaustion is creeping into my mind.

" Naruto, I don't know how much more I can do. Kid i'm just running out of juice." He jumps off the spinner and once again demands. " Catch me at the bottom of the slide!" I smile a tired smile and try to muster up the energy this boy wanted.

" Ok Naruto, but after this we should go back. I don't like being out here." The slide was situated on the other side of the park next to the swings. He climbs up the slide as he asks.

" Why? You scared of the dark or something?" I walk to the end of the slide and answer

" Its not that I'm afraid of the dark. I'm afraid of what's in the dark." As soon as I'm at the bottom of the slide he slides down. I do my best to catch him but my arm strength is not up to par. I can only hold Naruto from reaching the end despite trying to pick him up. He asks.

" What does that mean?"

" There are people who can hurt women like myself or children like yourself. They use this kind of environment to hurt people like me and you." He starts to climb the slide again and looks to be satisfied with my answer until he gets to the top and asks

" So there are people who hurt others?"

" Yes there is," I answer easily. " its unfortunate but it happens."

" So is there like people who are shinobi who hurt other people like you said?" I am tired and yet despite feeling the warning bells I still answered honestly.

" Yes, there probably is." His next words surprize me and have red flags fly within my mind.

" I don't want to be a shinobi anymore."

" Not all shinobi are bad people Naruto." I say quickly as panic began to run with my mind. ' He's supposed to be a shinobi! He can't quit that! Not now! He's so important to everything!' He retorts back.

" But you told me that shinobi hurt people."

" Yes, naruto shinobi do hurt people; but they also help people. They help this village, they help this country, hell they save lives as well as take them." I pause for a small moment and ask.

" But do you know what's more important?" He shakes his head and I feel myself filled with a wisdom I did not know I had.

" We cannot control the lives of others, while we can influence other people nothing is more important then what you can do yourself." I had walked up to Naruto at this point and pointed directly at his heart.

" This is what you can control, your heart." He looks at where my hand is.

" My Heart?" I nod and I can feel this overwellming sense of knowlege hit me and I felt obligated to follow it.

" This is what you can control, How you feel, how you think, how you do things , what things you do. He can tell you more about it."

" Who can?"

" God." The strangest thing happened with Naruto's next word.

" Kami?" His word was not english to me; but it was complete Japanese, Japanese that I actually understood as being its own language.

" Wait did you say kami?" The same word did not sound like english coming out of my mouth this time.

" Uh, yea isn't that the word you used?" I know it was important, something inside of me told me it was important; but my mind couldn't process it now.

" You know what Naruto, there is a difference between you and everyone else. You can actually choose who you want to be." I seemed to come back to my senses as shot as they were and I proceeded to tell Naruto. Despite turning away from him

" You can choose who you want to be Naruto, whether it is to be a shinobi, or to be a writer." Naruto caught me off guard with his next sentence

" Did you want to become a writer?" It shocked me a lot that he could ask such a question; but as any question did I thought it deserved as much honesty as I had in me.

" Yes, Yes Naruto I did once want to become a shinobi, I mean a writer. I wanted to become a writer." I can't help but put my hand on my face.

" Look, I'm tired and I probably can't give very good advice right now." I look back up at the boy as he grumbles and then asks with a depressed tone.

" Does that mean we have to go home?" I look up at the sky and look at the moon. It's high within the sky by now and I wonder if its like this all the time.

" Yea, I think we should go home."

" Aw..." he says I can't help but smile.

" Ok, I'll catch you one more time and we got to go back ok?" He holds a pout and starts this bratty attitude all of a sudden.

" I don't want to go home!" I simply lost all sympathy at that moment.

" Well I guess your going to have to walk home alone then." Even with my mental exhaustion I could actually remember how I got there. So I turn my back to him and begin to leave.

" Wait don't go!" I turn around and he scrambles to the top of the slide again. He sits there and says.

" I want you to catch me!" I smile and my sympathy returns.

" Ok, but if I do we have to go home together." He nods. I walk to the end of the slide and position myself to 'catch' him. I don't have the strength to pick him up but this time I'll try. He slides down and I use the last bit of strength I have to lift him up. I barely manage to pick him up a few inches. Lucky me he stands to his feet before I drop him.

" I want to do that again!"

" Now Naruto we agreed on going home together." Before I could say one word he threw another bratty faze and I did not like it one bit.

" Well, If your going to act like that I'll just go home then." To be honest I hated walking home in the dark. He didn't think it was nessisary to throw his bratty fit when I really did start leaving. Before I got ten feet away he ran back to me and we walked home together.

When we got home all I could really think about was getting some sleep, the craving for food had passed for most of the day. I still try to do the smart thing and at least walk Naruto to his door; which happens to be next to mine but its to the left while Mitoko's family is to my right.

" Hey can we do that again?" Despite being tired I actually found myself ok with the idea and decide to say ok to it though I try to mention some cons to the boy to start teaching him cons to his actions.

" If you really want to; but if you throw anymore of those bratty fits of yours we're going to have some issues." We had just finished climbing the stairs and was about to enter our apartments.

" Yea that would be awesome!" I walk to my apartment and I look at Naruto.

" Well Naruto we've been out late so I need to go to bed, I'm tired." He takes that moment to yawn and rub his eyes. I ruffle is spikey blond hair gently for a brief moment and tell him.

" Good night Naruto." I enter my apartment and put my mind to getting some sleep.

When the lights are out and i'm laying down on the floor I feel a presence next to me.

I open my eyes and I swear I can almost see a silhouette laying beside me.

" Sakura?" Lights went on within my mind as I realize. _' This halusination is not Sakura, the real Sakura exists here. You don't have to imagin her anymore.'_ _' But where is she?'_ I fight to give a more coherent thought. _' She's probably Naruto's age and for our sakes you do not need to think about her anymore.'_ God I want to meet her and to know her, but my feelings for her are romanticized. I realize this as I lay there on that floor. _' You must give her the same space you do for Naruto for both of our sakes.'_ I realize then that for her sake and my own I hope I never meet her because I truly don't know what this development of emotions for her has done to me.


	6. Rent Payments and Rip offs

**Author's Note: I have realized I cannot keep my dead line that I have stated within chapter one. I will not be able to update this story every weak as it makes me feel rushed, timed, and write horribly. I am sorry for the long wait for this chapter and I will say that I will complete this story one way or another. I will not leave it unfinished as I know you readers would be upset with me. So hang tight and be pacient I am trying to work on this story while I honestly see it as a choir now rather then an actual fun thing to write.**

 **So here's chapter six, I hope you enjoy it! :)**

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I open my eyes the next morning with a mental picture of Sakura Haruno laying right next to me. She looks like her teenage version of herself; though her clothes were different from the ones the anime version took to wearing. From what I can see she's wearing something light pink and has green pants on her. She is also turned away from me and we were both facing my apartment door. The thing about this morning was I could almost literally see the sleeping figure with my eyes; but the mental picture of her is gone almost moments after I become fully awake.

I could see the light that came through my window on the suddenly vacant floor in front of me. I could tell from the darkness of the house around me and the softness of the light that it was somewhere around ten or at least early in the morning.

Despite being tired I get up sluggishly, use the facilities, and once again go to the kitchen to down some more water. Despite the hunger gurgling at me it is only a soft reminder instead of a gut wrenching cramp within my gut like it was the first few days. I figure that it's because I'm not fully awake as I think and I was sedating my hunger by drinking so much water.

' _Its ok I'll be able to get you food today._ ' I thought to myself as I drank the tap water.

I remember a hopeful promise that the Hokage himself made to me; that I was supposed to get some money from the Hokage today. Even so, I can't help the worry that he lied to me. Not because he was a man not to be trusted; but because of my mental disorder. I can't help but think that because I told him of my disorder that he lied to me and was going to have my ass moved to an asylum where they would give me a lobotomy and probably do more horrible things to me. That irrational but logical thought plagues me this morning with that hope. The only reason that I had this fear was because I know shinobi are not past lying; whether to save one life or hundreds of others they would still lie. I can't help but also feel he didn't believe my story. I wouldn't have believed my own story if I hadn't experienced it for myself. I'm afraid that he may have actually lied about the health institute, his belief in the story, and his word about his own story. I'm dreading the possibility of being sent to an asylum because here within this world; lobotomy is most definitely realistic and possible reality for a cure of my schizophrenia. What's worse my mind was beginning to say that there could be other more horrific ways of trying to cure mental disabilities. Not only that is on my mind though. I have to make myself forget the presence of the hallucinations to just be sane; but even when I do that the schizophrenia still lingers within the back of my mind.

In spite of my slowly waning sanity; I quietly made my way through my apartment and open my front door to check my little metal mail box. It is situated just beside my door on the wall to my left as I exit my front door.

As I checked my mail box I took note of its black color and triangle cylinder like shape that allowed for more room in the box. I flip open the lid, which was situated on the top, and stuck my hand inside with hope that my fears would be wrong.

I feel a slightly big package inside and I pull it out. The package was a normal white envelope with a slightly fat size. I look at the front side and see that there's Japanese writing on it. There within the middle of the package was my name in English. I open the package and I see bills of money sitting within. I well up with excitement and exclaim.

" Oh my God!" I look up to the sky with a happy smile of relief.

" Thank you Lord God! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" The words poured out of my mouth with speedily excitement. I rush back into my apartment again and decide to spread the good news to the hallucination Sakura; who was still lying on the floor as far as I could tell.

" Sakura!" I called her with quiet excitement; trying not to be too loud because if my neighbors heard me they would see me talking to myself instead of 'people'. I do know talking to them is not socially acceptable where I came from so I am trying to not bring questions onto myself from other people.

The mental picture of her leaves my mind once again and I'm left trying to figure out if she answered or not. I waited a few moments and then once again call her.

" Sakura!" I wasn't very loud about it but I did get an answer.

' _What Samantha?'_ I hear her say tiredly. I hold up the envelope and reply.

" I got the money the Hokage said he'd give me!" The mental picture of her returns to me and I witness an interesting sight.

She sits up and rubs her emerald eyes. Her hair was slightly messy with the same light pink tone. Her cloths were a pink fluffy jacket a pair of green pants and the same blue shoes many of the people here seemed to wear. Her skin was pale as I remember seeing her being. She answers me as she rubs her eyes.

' _What are you talking the about?'_ She asked me and I answer her as I shut the door.

" When I went to talk to the Hokage he told me he would send me some money for going into the Academy." She looks at me and said.

' _Have you been accepted into the academy?'_

" Well they said that I would get my answer on…Saturday I think? Or on Sunday. Definitely on Sunday but otherwise on Saturday." This is not a problem to me though I was having a slight difficulty remembering what day it was currently. I turn myself away from her and begin looking at the closet though I'm unsure of why I am.

' _So how did you get the money then?_ ' She asks and I find myself thinking about that for a moment.

" I honestly have no idea." I say after a moments thought; rethinking my thought moment after as I recall what the Hokage told me yesterday.

" Well he did say he would send money, and I guess that means he's accepted me into the academy. But in any case, the money's here and that's what matters." I started to pace into the kitchen and back into the living room as I begin to think of the market I found while on one of my outings this week. As I was remembering where the market area was; a thought suddenly shouts within my mind so loudly that I stop my excited pacing in the living room.

' Don't you have to pay rent?' I cannot discern who it was that said it but I did remember my promise with Miss. Motoka.

" Crap! I nearly forgot about my rent! Thanks for the reminder!" I turn my gaze to the spot I last 'saw' Sakura with a blind mind and say.

" Sakura I'll be right back, I have to go pay my rent." Listening to her reply is an easy task with how prominent my schizophrenia has been acting. I could mentally see her combing her hair with her hand as she replied.

' _See you when you get back.'_ A slight frown finds its place on my face though I am unsure why; in my mind I see the image of a young purple haired teenager, who knew as Nodoka, give a kiss to Sakura. The unfamiliar emotion of jealousy runs in my blood. But at the same time seeing them kiss in my mind didn't necessarily say that they actually did anything. Which had me fighting with myself to figure out if it was 'really' just happened or if I was truly imagining it. This problem has happened more than once when dealing with the hallucinations. Of course the two girls never said anything to me that there was anything going on. Despite it being a bad thing to have rampaging schizophrenia; I couldn't have 'seen' this event if it weren't for me being off my medication for as long as I have been. In fact I could have ultimately thought it was all in my head; but that is not the case now. So with this thought proccess in mind I left my apartment and shut the door behind me.

When I got outside and my door was shut I started muttering under my breath as I locked the apartment.

" Stupid Nodoka kissing Sakura. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Urg!" As I express this bout of frustration I suddenly feel surprised and critical about my reactions. So much so that I voice out my criticism almost immediately after I finish the sentence.

"God, I'm getting jealous of a hallucination? God... What is this life coming too?" This is my new thought process as I go down the hellish stairs of the apartment.

Even when I personally didn't like the critical vocalization I saw the point it was making; I was attempting to bring some sanity back into my mind by letting a personality express their thoughts. Its an act I appreciate most dearly now because the longer I go without medication; the more the insanity grows within my mind.

My angry feeling jealous goes away as I find myself at the bottom of the stairs and the annoying yet helpful criticism from my personality has me feeling slightly saner than what I have been feeling.

I make my way to the lobby doors and enter. The first thing I see is Miss Motoka sitting at her desk with papers piled up on the desk. I assume she's doing paper work so I try come in quietly and walk over to her desk and wait by her desk paciently while quickly trying to remember her name. She worked on her paper work as if I wasn't there and after a few minutes waiting I finally call to her.

" Miss Motoka?" She looks up at me and it shows me that I got her name right.

" Yes?"

" I have the money to pay for rent." She places her papers down that she had in her hand. I reach into my envelope and take out the money.

" How much does it cost?"

" Fifty four thousand yen." My head shoots back up and I look at her with horrified surprise.

" My apartment costs that much?" She raises an eyebrow and I realize that I probably said something offending.

"Is that a problem?" I quickly shake my head as I see the danger zone of her words.

"No, it's not a problem! It's just…" Her arms snake over each other in an arm fold and a scowl of annoyance fills her wrinkled face.

" Spit it out kid. I ain't got all day." Before I could stop myself my concerning question falls out of my mouth.

"Isn't that a lot of money for an apartment?" I realize as soon as I said this I put myself in very dangerous territory so I quickly try to salvage the situation.

"I mean I've never had an apartment before so I really don't know how much it costs…" I am left fearing for the worst. She watches at me for a moment and gives a small exhale that I believed to be a sigh.

" It's enough for the kind of apartment you have." Once again my mouth betrays me before I could stop it.

" Ok, can you explain why? I mean if it's not too much of a inconvenience." She unwraps her arms and holds her left hand up with one finger showing.

" First off kid, the facilities you have, like a bathroom and a big kitchen, are luxuries when it comes to apartments. So they are going to cost more to run and cost more to have." I'm surprised that she actually answers my question.

" Oh, ok. To be honest I've never really had Japanese currency so I don't know how much this moneys all worth." She gives me a stern look and says.

" Don't interrupt." I give her a nod and watch another finger rise from her fist.

" Second, You're living in the city and places to live, like apartments are in high demand so they are going to cost more. So the demand for living space in the city raises up the prices even more." I nod and she sticks a third finger up from her hand.

" Third, We have an unwelcoming tenant living in my apartments and that makes people not want to rent here. So the prices have to go up on the other renters apartments to compensate for that." She leans back in her chair for a moment.

" You mean Naruto huh?"

" That boy is the only reason people are not renting my apartments. If it weren't for him I would have this whole apartment complex filled with tenants. And I wouldn't have to charge my other attendants so much." She stretches in her chair and says.

" I don't know why I'm telling you this, you're just a foreigner, you wouldn't understand." I am silent for a moment after she says this before I ask.

" Is that why you're asking for so much?"

" Well I haven't got any other choice. If I want to keep these apartments running I have to pay for it somehow. Even if that means it comes out of my own pocket." I find myself pleased to find she's not such a hard woman on the inside and in my spontaneous good judgment I just smile and decide to not mention my discovery.

" So that's why you want so much."

" Yea that's about it." I can't help my widening smile as I say.

" Well if you need to do that I don't mind paying a little more." She raises an eye brow.

" That's a first time I've ever heard a tenant say they would pay extra for an apartment."

" Well I'll pay the price you've asked of me, if that helps keep your apartments running. I rather not be on the streets again so…" As I was saying this I was counting the money within my envelope.

" What was the amount again?"

" Fifty four thousand yen."

" Ah, thanks." I pull the amount out of the envelop and hand it to her. She counts the money under her breath and when she finishes she looks up at me and says.

" This is fine. You can go now." I bow to her.

" Thank you very much." I turn and leave the apartments and start the climb back up the stairs.

My mind wanders to the two hallucination people who I know currently resided in my apartment with me. 'Are they a couple? why didn't they tell me?' I have a feeling that they are together that stands prominently in my mind despite my doubt; though if someone were to ask me how I know I wouldn't be able to explain how.

Now I didn't mind the fact that Sakura was in a relationship. In fact I'm happy she could find solance in someone other then me. My problem with it is that I take a lot of comfort from the hallucination Sakura. There were a lot of moments in the years with schizophrenia where her 'existence' and her 'presence' were the only things that made my loneliness I feel a little bit more bearable. This new development takes away the only emotional support I have and has me feeling very embarrassed because I would attempt to be affectionate such as holding and cuddlin Sakura in the dark of my bedroom back at home. Having done that and other actions around the same affection level for however long while they were in a relationship had me very embarrassed by my actions.

' _There's no one else who's going to listen to me and my problems now, except god.'_ Even when I quickly added ' except god.' into my thoughts this thought did not bring me comfort. That should have been disturbing to me when I felt this since I consider myself to be Christian. But here I am thinking this way. There was no one else I knew who would listen to my problems and no one else who was 'there' to just comfort me when my isolating loneliness was at its worst. " This is just fucking great!" I say as I climb the stupid stairs. "How am I supposed to deal with this? How can I handle this stupid situation now?"

' _Her thoughts in her mind are scaring me,'_ I hear a childish female voice in my mind saying. The reply comes quickly after and I could almost say with confidence it sounded like Sakura.

' _Shh. Everything's going to be ok.'_ I none the less listened to the voices become mulled over into mental 'static' where I could 'feel' them trying to talk but then I couldn't find anything coherent.

I reach the top of the stairs and once again have to fight the uneasy feeling of my fear of heights. I enter my apartment and say the first thing that comes to mind.

" Why didn't you tell me you two were in a relationship?" The pair looked at me with curiosity.

' _What do you mean?'_ Nodoka's soft voice asks me.

" I saw you two kiss. I think." I start to be unsure of what I saw before hand as she replies.

' _Did you see us kiss?'_

" Well I think so. I was about to leave the apartment when I saw you two, ya know."

' _Kiss?'_ She asks softly,

" Yea that." I'm starting to become flustered and I demand.

" Are you two going to tell me or not?" She sighs and says.

' _We're not dating Sam.'_ I start to become infuriated with embarrassment and anger because of them denying what I saw. I didn't want to be made a fool.

" Then what was that I saw?" Sakura comes to her rescue and says.

'We didn't mean for you to find out like this.' Nodoka looks to Sakura and says.

' _Sakura,'_ I mentally see her look with a hand up to calm her and say.

' _It's ok, I'll handle this.'_ I mentally see her return her gaze to me and then the picture of her is gone from my mind.

' _We didn't mean for you to find out this way. We were waiting for you to become more stable before you found out.'_ Despite her kindness I was still angry. For all the things I did; like attempting holding her at night or kissing her lips within the dark of my room. All that embarrasses me not only because I know now there was a witness; but now I feel bad because I could have been straining their relationship the entire time they were together.

' _Why did they not tell me? Couldn't they have given me some mercy and attempted to say she was in a relationship?_ ' How can I live with myself now knowing that perhaps during that time I had made not only Sakura uncomfortable but Nodoka too? I cannot physically see them. I only have mental pictures of them. So that makes it even worse because I could have mistaken one to be the other and oh god the embarrassment attacked me ferociously.

My face heated up rapidly and I couldn't help my angry reply.

" You could have told me sooner! God I can't even begin to describe how angry I am!" Sakura is calm with her words.

' _I know you're mad with me.'_

" I'm not angry at you, or Nodoka. I'm angry you didn't tell me about this sooner! I don't mind the idea of you searching for someone else! In fact I think I can say I'm happy for you! I do mind that you neglected to tell me and that I could have said or done things to the wrong person! God I don't even know what I'm saying! Just ignore me!" I couldn't stand being in their 'presence' anymore because I was just embarrassing myself; so I quickly walked into the bathroom and slammed the door behind me.

' God couldn't they have told me?' The things that had happened before hand flashed into my mind and I regret them. Even more embarrassment fills me as I sat on top of the toilet seat with my arms folded and stewed in it.

The memory of my affectionate actions flashed through my mind. I remember how lately I couldn't positively say there were feelings for her. The voices and the personalities have been putting words in my mouth I was unsure of being mine. Memories of the many nights I attempted to get rid my isolating loneliness by believing in her existence at night came to mind. I remember there have been times like now that I 'needed' her to emotionally support me; but the thought of how many times have I made her uncomfortable plagued me _._

 _How many times have I accidentally threatened their relationship? What if I said my romantic words to the wrong one? God how many times have I done this? How can I live with myself? How can I stand myself now?'_

These kind of questions are the thoughts running in my mind as I sat in that small toilet room. One old but very familiar thought comes to mind.

 _God how many times have I made their life a living hell?'_

' _Samantha.'_ I heard Sakura say from the other side of the door.

" Go away!" I say firmly and try not to yell so I don't alarm my neighbors.

' _She just needs time to process this.'_ I hear Nodoka say.

' _Yea but,'_ I cannot stand my own silence and yell just loud enough to get through the door.

" I can still hear you!"

' _She just honestly needs some time guys.'_ A voice that sounds like Hinata says these words and I'm left wondering.

' _God who the fuck else is here?'_ As I tried to listen their words become gibberish in my mind and I hear them no more for a moment until I hear.

' _God who else wants to get the fuck out of here?'_ I hear mental words of agreement from different voices in my head and I can't help but want to shut down the mental chatter.

As I think that the mental chatter I hear a turns into a strange noise and suddenly my mind feels empty with silence.

" Sakura?" I ask out loud; but there is no reply.

I stand up and open the door.

" Hello?" There is no mental reply.

" I guess they're gone…" I don't know how to feel about this. This occurrence has happened a couple times before, I remember. But I usually never know how to deal with the silence.

" Well I guess it's just me for now." Half of my embarrassment and anger leave as I say these words and then the memory of one of my goals hits me.

" That's right, I have to get my clothes cleaned." The problem with getting the shirt and jeans cleaned is how I was going to dry them. Would I leave them out in the sun again?

I shake my head and think.

' _No I cant be streaking half naked for that long.'_ The thought of using the oven hit me again; but I dismiss the idea quickly. Then the thought of wearing the drying cloths came to mind. After mulling over it for a few moments I came to the decision that being in dry clothes wouldn't be so bad since the heat of the last few days has been unforgiving.

So I go to the kitchen decide to take off just one article of clothing to keep myself half way decent. Taking off my shirt I was slightly disgusted by the smell that came from my shirt when I smelled it.

" Ew, remind me not to go without deodorant!" I turn on the kitchen sink and begin to scrub my shirt before the hot water heated. As I did this I had to remind myself to not be negative and so I said out loud the first thing that came to mind.

"Well at least it's not as bad as my brother." The thought of my younger brother made me slow my scrubbing and my mind lingered by that thought.

He is only a year younger than me, and yet that did not matter with his mental disorder. He couldn't do much on his own without prompt from people multiple times. Thinking of him made my mind wander to my parents and my family.

Tears start to form and fall from my eyes. For once there is no 'need' to control my outer immage and I let myself cry. I think about the home I was taken away from and how life was so much easier there. I also think about my family and how much I wished they could comfort me.

I feel a presence on my left hand; but I do not venture into trying to know 'who' it was.

At this moment I realize I'm not alone and that despite the hallucinations not being physically real they were the only support I had. This made me look to my left and 'see' there was someone there.

' _why didn't you tell me sooner?'_ I hear within my head and I reply.

" What? That I have feelings for you?" There was no reply and for a moment I begin to believe that I had really made up the words.

" I just…I'm having a emotional break down because I miss my family and I don't know how I'm going to live without emotional support." Even when I'm saying these words I feel abhorred by my words.

" God, I don't want to use you! But I just…"

Then there's something wrong because I can't feel their presence and I begin to wonder if I was even talking to the same person.

' _How do I even know who I'm talking to?'_

I wipe my tears on my arms and valiantly try to recover my composure. This does not happen easily as I could still feel the physical pain of my sadness within my throat for minutes after the tears stopped.

This did not stop me from cleaning my shirt. When I did finish I left It soak in some hot water and try to write within my diary.

 _Day 5, Friday ( I think)_

 _Well I found out that Sakura and Nodoka are together. Theres so much to write about I don't know if I can gather my thoughts…_

I find myself fighting to find the words as I sit on my living room floor. I end up leaving the diary blank after writing some words of the voices and close it. I decide to lay down on my floor and look up at the ceiling.

I don't know how long I lay there on the floor just stewing in my frustration and the light static of my mind. Then I start to think of home and days where I had felt like this before.

There were days I remember wanting to lay down and stare at the ceiling; but America is full of ways to distract oneself with money. The internet was my distraction as much as writing and gaming. The only thing I can still do is write here.

" How long am I going to last without internet?" As soon as I say this I am once again annoyed with myself.

"God you don't need the internet! You need food damn it!" I knew this very well and I had to fight to reply.

" I can't get food until my clothes are done being cleaned." With that thought in my mind and my impatient hunger I get up off the floor and walk into the kitchen to check the clothing.

The water is still warm and it's only been like that for a few minutes. Deciding to just get the shirt on I take it out of the water and wring it out. When I finished wringing it out I decide to look at it before I put it on.

The shirt is red with a blue tiger design on it. It used to have plastic jewelry for the eyes but they had fallen off long ago. I take the shirt and smell it to see if it still had an odor. All I can smell is the soap that I had scrubbed into it. So I put on the wet shirt on and feel immense relief from the heat. After that I take the envelop with the money and leave for the markets I had found during my exploration of the city.

Once I step outside my door I feel the intense heat of the summer day hit like a slap to the face. Wearing the wet shirt helped keep my torso cool; but the rest of my body felt like it walked into an oven and had the door shut.

I shut my apartment door, lock it and walk to the balcony part of the stair way and stop for a moment. I compare the heat from my house to the heat outside. Such thoughts led to a moment of curiosity.

' _Since when did I turn on the AC in my house?'_ I didn't remember right then and there what I did, but I did have a moment of having a argument with myself and my oh so helpful conscious.

' _I'll just leave it, I need to get me some food.'_ I thought in response to my curiosity. I take a single step from the apartment and I hear

' _No, you need to go check the thermostat.'_

" Can't I just leave it?" I ask aloud as my thoughts and responses start becoming to fast for me to keep up within my mind

" No, what about the power bill?"

" What power bill?" I know at this point that this argument was not mine to win; but I know very well it was still my decision to listen or not. I also know that my neighbors could me listening to me so I whisper my main point despite the silence of the 'voice'.

" How am I supposed to turn off the thermostat anyway?" There was no instant reply to my words so I wait for a few moments for some response. Unfortunately my patience is wearing thin so waiting a few moments is all I am willing to do.

" What ever, I'm hungry so I'm getting me some food." With that I walk to the steps on my this floor and start down the steps to the market place I found a few days ago.

When I did get to the street I feel relieved to not only see small stores but also see stands with food like fruits and vegetables being displayed.

I spotted a stand that looked to be displaying large oranges and couldn't help but be drawn to it because a lot of the other vegetables and fruits I see are not familiar to me. A tann heavy set man was standing behind the stand and had a smile form on his face as I approached.

" Welcome! These oranges were freshly picked this morning!" I couldn't help myself as I pulled my envelop out of my pocket.

" How much do these cost?"

" We have these oranges at the modest price of 100 yen each."

" I'll take four of these." I pick them up and it occurred to me that I didn't have a bag with me so I ask.

" Do these come with bags or do I just bring one of my own?" He gives me a strange look and asks.

" You're not from here are you?" I give a small sheepish smile as I had to place my fruit back on the stand to just get to my envelop.

" I have to put them there for a second. I just got her a few days ago actually."

" Well we usually expect the customer to bring their own carrying device whether that would be a bag or a basket and what not." I nod and hand him a thousand yen bill.

" Can you give me the change for that?"

" Thats easy enough." I watch him pull out some bills and count out the amount and then he hands it over.

" Thank you sir." I take it from him and he replies.

" No, thank you for being a customer." I place the change in my envelope, give a slight bow to the man

and then I leave the stand.

I start heading home with my fruit in hand with two missions in mind; I need to get my backpack to go shopping and I need to eat before I go shopping for more food. While this is in mind I do feel amazed and proud of myself because I didn't spend all of it in one sitting.

I would have actually started eating the oranges if I had a place to put the other oranges. But they are bigger than my fist so I figure they wouldn't fit well within my pockets. So I carry them home within my arms and had to fight my urge to eat them as I walk.

When I did climb the steps and reach my door I stood at the door trying to figure out how I was going to open it. I come up with a quick solution; I put three oranges in the crook of my left arm and attempt to stick the fourth orange in my pocket only to remember that my key was in my right pocket. So I put the forth orange in the crook of my left arm and pull my key out of my pocket with little problem.

I open the door and I find myself hit by the cool of the the apartment. " Crap, I left the air conditioner on!" I walk to the thermostat which was on the wall, in the entrance of the hallway and within eyesight from the door. I don't actually know if it would be helpful but I turn up the heat to make the apartment stop cooling itself.

After doing that I sit down next to my bag and place all the oranges on the floor in front of me.

" Well there's not much I can say except thanks god for the chance to have food, and the money. That's all I can say for thanks I guess, well unless I say thanks for the apartment. Thank you in Lord Jesus name…" I took an orange from the pile and started to peal it with impatience.

I tore the orange in half and take a bite from the half in my left hand; I'm pleasantly surprised because the orange is sweeter than the oranges I've had at school. I remember the oranges being softly sweet sometimes if I was lucky; they were usually sour or they would be dry when I got them from the high school.

I tore into that orange hungrily eating it as if it was an apple; it was gone within a minute. The next orange I grab to eat I take slightly more time eating which is good because when I am hungry I normally eat really fast and end up eating more than what my body actually needed.

The fact that I have had moments in my life where there wasn't food might have an affect on my impulsive eating has crossed my mind; though at this point in time what really matters is that I have food in my stomach cause I haven't eaten anything for most of this week.

As I eat It occurs to me that I should check how much money I actually have. So I pull out my envelope and start counting the bills. Instead of having six hundred yen left from buying the oranges I had five hundred left.

" Hey, that guy stole my money!" It sucks that it would happen to me but I made a mental reminder to check my money when its given back to me.

In any case I had twenty four thousand and five hundred yen left when I finished counting.

'Well that's helpful.' I started eating the third orange when I took a moment to reflect on my situation. I look at the peeled orange in my hand and then the pile of oranges in my hand.

"I haven't eaten most of this week and the first thing I eat is an orange." I pause and admit my luck out loud.

" I am really lucky, I could have been sent to an asylum and that didn't happen. I could have been on the streets and that didn't happen. Having gone without food for a week hasn't been that terrible, I finally got food for once and yea that guy did kind of rip me off but I have the rest of my money." I look up at the ceiling.

" Thank you god, I really appreciate the help."

' _Your welcome.'_ I hear within my mind; but I quickly dismiss it as one of my voices as that has happened more than once.

When I finish my third orange I take a look at the fourth.

' _I really need to save that orange for later.'_ I take it in my hand, get up from the floor with another hand filled with peels and go to the kitchen. I place the Orange on the counter and place the peals next to it since I didn't have any trash bags.

" So I need to go shopping for some food and I probably need to buy some pots and pans...Then I need to get some convenient stuff like toilet paper and garbage bags. Definitely need garbage bags and toilet paper 'cause going without sucks." The fact that i've been going without these things has both made it easy and hard at the same time; I know I can go without a lot now, but at the same time I don't want to if I don't have to.

' _I should make a list. That way I won't forget what I'm getting.'_ That thought actually surprised me because I never usually make lists; or go shopping for that matter. I mull over it for a few moments and come to the conclusion that it was actually a good idea.

So I go back to the living room, walk over to my backpack and began to rummage through it for loose leaf paper. I find a yellow notebook and tear a piece of paper out from the back. I find my sparkly purple pencil bag and take a mechanical pencil from it. I go back to the kitchen and begin listing all the things I needed for my apartment.

 _My shoping list_

 _Trash bags_

 _toilet paper_

 _pot_

 _pans_

 _skillet_

 _eggs_

 _milk_

 _oranges_

 _bananas ( if any)_

 _ramen ( cheep kind)_

 _cups_

 _plates_

 _silverwear ( Chopsticks?)_

 _anything that looks familiar. ( what would that be? lol)_

I was about to finish my list when another thought came to mind. " Shouldn't I get some cloths? I mean, I need more than one pair of clothes but…" I shake my head and say.

" Sam, you need to get some food, clothes are a luxury."

" And their something I technically need because I can't go to the academy wearing the same clothes everyday they would ask me about my hygiene and that's something I don't need right now." I feel myself change personalities once again and say.

" Fine, but only if we have enough money left."

"I don't need something expensive just something to get me by." I find myself within control again. so I write down the cloths as an optional thing. If worse came to worse I would just buy some tomorrow if I have enough money.

I empty my backpack onto the floor and leave the stuff on the floor thinking I would clean it up later and go back out into the heat of the day with the thought of getting the things I had on my list from the market place in mind.


	7. Unpleasant Meats and a New Friend

Hey you guys! I'm sorry it took so long to get you this chapter. I managed to get it written out after some difficulty ( thinking to much on the boring things I guess.) But in any case here it is.

I will say that I really need some helpful criticism because I cannot grow up as a writer without those kinds of reviews so if you have any helpful tips or want me to expand on things that are vague within the story just let me know and I'll update the chapters. Note I will usually leave a notice in the authors note area letting you guys know if i have changed the story chapters any.

I'll voice some concerns with this chapter on the bottom of the page.

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Having found myself back at the market street, which lay in the middle of the city, I decide to walk slowly down the market area to see if I could find anything that resembled a convenient store.

The market is kind of crowded with people shopping or passing through; I pass stands with different kinds of vegetables. On my left I see what looks like Cabbage or lettuce being sold. As I go down the street I see some vegetables that look almost like celery sticks except they have more of a green onion like look going on for the stocks; I saw a few stands that had these kind of stocks though some trained eye would tell me they were all different. I did take a few moments at each of these particular stalls to see if there were differences. Of course there were even stranger green vegetables like one that looked like a big bunch of noodles; well there were a couple stalls with these. Then there were a couple of stalls that had these big turnip like things and stalls with other bulb like vegetables. I will admit I was happy to see some potato looking vegetables being sold. I was surprised to even see tangerines and stuff like lemons and limes being sold.

When I got to the middle of the market place I started to become nervous. The food being sold are meats. I saw normal things like chickens and ducks but I saw other animals like goats and frogs. I couldn't figure out why those were being sold but there they are. And they were in deed getting customers as I saw the stands having people stop by them. As I past those stalls I am not prepared to see what catches my attention.

A very heavy set man stood behind the stall with a white apron on and a plad t-shirt under it. Like the man who sold the oranges to me, he looks to be selling some sort of dead, cooked and hairless animal. The face of one of the animals hangs on a hook on the stall. Its lips were drawn back in a snarl showing sharp pointed teeth and its eyes were closed; the ears are pointed up and I can't help but feel queasy as it looked very much like a dog. I can tell he's selling the dead animals is by him actually letting the current customer take one of these canine into their basket.

I can't stand not knowing what this particular shop keeper is selling so I make my way to the stall and I am greeted with a smile.

" Good afternoon! How can I help you today?"

" Could you tell me what you're selling?" I can't help my furrowed eyebrows and the slight feeling of being ill.

" I'm selling dog meat here, can't you tell?"

" I've never seen it be sold before so I didn't know." It made me even more queasy as I looked and thought of how they could have been someone's pet.

" You are not from here are you?" I guess he could tell from my look I was giving to the animals that I was foreign.

" No sir, I've just got here a week ago." I look back at him and he wears a curious look on his clean shaven face. I could see the second chin protruding lightly from his under chin. You could see his tan even within his stand which had a tarp or sheet covering over the box of dead dogs and the man easily.

" Ah, so dog meat is not a delicacy within your foreign country?"

" Yes, we don't eat dogs where I'm from."

" Well you are like many people who live within the city."

" They don't eat dogs here?"

" Well some do eat dog meat and those that do stop by my stand; but there are sayings that this village has taken to keeping these livestock as pets. Their very well natured they say though I have yet to see such phenomenon here."

" Maybe it's hard to keep pets here."

He puts his hand on his hip and says

" Well if it was I would be selling a lot more. Even Naburty is having better luck than me and he sells cat meat." _' Cat meat?'_

" Is this meat sold better elsewhere?"

" You really are new here…" He sticks his fat thick arms up and places his hands behind his head.

" I don't really know much about this country so if it isn't too much of a bother would you please answer my question?"

" Eating Cats and Dogs is a natural thing outside of the city." I quickly turn my head and I see a middle age man with a mustache, white skin and a lean build standing next to me.

" Naburty…" I hear the heavier man say warningly.

" Really?" I ask with surprise

" Yes, in fact the country has many poor people who would benefit from eating Dog and Cat meat as meals." The man's voice is higher pitched and slightly raspy, something a merchant with sneaky selling techniques would have.

" How does it benefit them?"

" Well for one many other meats are hard to come by because of the weather here and the lack of

farming land."

" Oh. So meats like hamburger are imported?"

" I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with that term." Once again I found myself correcting my dialect.

" I mean cow meat is imported right?"

" Well I don't know about that; there have been instances where cows can be seen grazing within this land; But I'm not sure if it would mean they import it."

" Don't listen to Naburty. It's a well known fact that Konoha has a herd of cows grazing near the city."

" Did they level some of the forest to do so?" I remember seeing cows within one episode of the Naruto anime but I hope he could tell me more about it.

" Beats me, all I know is that they do have a herd and that its located outside the city somewhere." He looks back to me with a stern demeanor.

" Now are you going to buy something or do you have some other plans?" The thought of buying dog meat let alone cat meat makes me feel a little ill and very uncomfortable.

" No I have something else in mind," I turn to the heavy man and bow to him.

" Thank you for telling, I mean informing me about your goods."

" Well it's all good kid." The skinny man comes closer to me and asks with a small smile that disturbs me.

" Perhaps you would like to purchase some of my goods?"

" Naburty…"

" Now now Daisuke, you have as much equal chance as I have now. So what do you say?" I shook my head and replied with a slight temper

" Look I'm not interested in buying anything."

" But perhaps you would at least look perhaps you would find interest." I honestly didn't want to see the man's wares; but a part of me told me that I had to at least give him a chance.

" Ok, I'll see your wares." He claps his hands together with enthusiasm I wish I could have.

" Excellent! Please come this way!" The last thing on my mind I wanted to see was the dead cats on display. We pass a couple of stands with strange vegetables and I find myself ill as we stoped his stand.

His stand was also covered by a cloth tarp to shield his stall from the sun. What really got me was the tan skin of another dead group of animals; already cooked, small like a house cat, and unmoving they lay there piled on top of one another easy for grab.

I can see the pores where the cats whiskers would have grown and I can see the unmistakable 'm' shape of their top lips and that tells me he really is selling cats as a meal. The undeniable features of a cats and them being sold made my stomach turn with more and more disgust with these men and their livings.

I really want to cry because I love cats and I am horrified that people would do this to them. However my actual reaction was to hold it in and attempt to not offend the man with my emotional outburst. I couldn't help the distaste on my face though; he gives me a look of confusion and asks me.

" Is it not up to your standards?"

" No, I'm just not used to seeing cat on the menu." I say quickly. I can't help but want to leave the stand and I quickly say.

" Thank you for showing your wares; but i'm not interested in purchasing anything." I'm trying to look for a way to leave and I'm thinking _' God, you should give it a chance, I mean what if its something you like?'_ Then i'm thinking. _' God no!'_ However somehow I lose the will to say no and the words fall out of my mouth just as I'm about to leave.

" Wait, I'll take one." That sentence should have horrified me; but that act didn't. The man Naburty claps his hands together.

" Splendid, now just pick out the one you want and I'll tell you the cost." The act of picking out a cat that I would have to eat didn't seem to bother me at the moment and I decided on a small one that was probably younger than it looked.

The one I picked out was smaller than a lot of the cats; it was maybe a few months old or a female I couldn't tell. Though when I pick it up I feel ashamed that I didn't see that it was already gutted and that none of its internal organs remained within the cat.

" Ah not a big eater? That will be 1200 yen please." I go to grab my money and then a thought of clarity comes to mind. ' _What are you DOING?_ ' _' There's no harm in trying something new.'_ Another thought comes to mind. _' But is this something you want to do?'_ That helps clear up my judgement as my answer is no.

" I'm sorry sir I change my mind." He gives me a surprised look.

 _' Have you lost your mind? We need food Sam!'_

" Are you sure?"

" Yes I'm sure." With that I find myself leaving the stand with renewed focus that I didn't even know I had inside of me.

" I am not going to eat some cat that could have been a stray or worse; someone's pet!" I spoke this under my breath as I passed the other people who walked through this market.

I continue down the marketplace and I'm quite happy to get away from the men.

'That man chose to make a living off selling cats, and the other man chose to make a living out of having dogs on the menu. I on the other hand do not ever have to have the animals on my menu again. Even if I am opposed with the gesture I can't say what actually had me almost agree to buy that man's cat. The worse thing that could happen is that I end up disliking the food and have to throw away the carcass.'

As I arrive at the middle of the of the market it occurs to me that I don't actually know how much money I have. I am surrounded by different stalls at the sides of this street and there are many people here who are shopping or walking along this area of town. I do however see a spot by some seller of cabbage like vegetables that I could stand by to count my money. So I walk to the stand farther from the stand to say I'm not buying anything.

" Hello! Would you like to buy some lettuce?" That vegetable he is selling didn't look anything like the lettuce from where I'm from.

" No, thank you." I take out my envelope and count out my money and politely declining the merchant, who was a man like the cat meat seller, and trying not to be irritated by the mans persistence to sell his strange lettuce.

I found that I had five ten-thousand yen, three one-thousand yen, and five one-hundred yen which added up to be 53600 yen.

' So I have fifty three thousand five hundred yen to sell, I mean use. Its use Sam.' The commentation of my voices wasn't coherent enough for me to understand so I mostly ignored it.

Despite taking a slight detour around the market road I manage to reach the end of the market street and I can see the a huge wall that protected the civilians who lived here; though how much the wall actually works on keeping enemy shinobi out of the city was left to be said and tested. I assume though that it made the civilians feel safe in a world where shinobi could climb walls easily.

In any case, I know that I still haven't found a store that has what I needed or a stall for that matter so I look around for someone to ask. There were many people shopping and I spot a young man walking the street alone. I go up to the man and politely ask for his attention.

" Excuse me sir." The man stopped walking and turned to me.

" I was hoping you could tell me where I could find a store to buy pots and pans, I can't read Japanese so I can't tell where one is."

" You just go up the street and on the right corner of this street you should find the store Fukui's general store."

" Is there anything visually you could tell me about it?"

"This is the only store that has glass windows on its door on the street."

" Ok thank you sir." I remember to give some sort of a bow and go on my search for the store.

I found the store back up the middle of the street, the building was a lot smaller than I've ever seen a general store be. Compared to the big buildings around it looks like a small house in a big city. And it was colored with soft, light green on the outside except for the top floor; it's a light yellow tan like many of the buildings I've seen while walking this city's streets.

When I got to its door I feel nervous because I don't like making mistakes even when I know it's a human trait. Despite being nervous I take courage and open the clear door so I could get a better view of the store inside.

The store was not big like Walmart was; in fact it was as small as a coffee shop. The store had five shelves that are wooden and not that tall stretching into their own small isles. The people that were shopping carried their own baskets filled with items waiting to be bought. I could see a refrigerated section of the store; though it looks to have stretched along the walls of the store.

I start my search through the middle section where I could see the pans and what not. There were many pots and pans sitting on the shelves ; some of them big some of them small and they weren't really organized. I found that there were a lot of big pans as I walked down the small aisle; but I only wanted a small pan for now so that I could cook eggs. So I walk back up to the middle of the aisle and spot the pan I'm looking for next to this masculine looking person. Next to a big black boiling pot and a small frying pan; I pick up a medium size pan that had a black lid from the shelf and look for a price on it. On the bottom of the pan it said 1100 yen on it.

" Eleven thousand yen? Wow, that's a lot for a pan."

" Actually that's not a lot. It's a good price for that size of a pan." I am startled by the feminine voice that spoke to me. I look for the lady who spoke to me and saw the masculine looking person looking at me.

" It is?"

" Yea, turn it over for a second." I complied with silent nervousness to the woman and found on the bottom of the pan there is red Japanese writing printed on the back.

" Ho oh! It's made by the Kurikawa company! That's a neat deal!" My initional curiosity to her reason for speaking to me is easily put aside as my curiosity for the world around me is at this moment deemed more important

" Is that a good company?" I am still looking at the Japanese kanji as she replies

" You're not from here are you?"

" NO, definitely not from here." Looking back at the woman I take a nervous look at her.

The lady has short, straight, black hair and dark eyes. The lady wore a sizable robe shirt that is light jade green and has light blue trim on it. The robe is tied with a pale white scarf thing. She wears dark brown pants that looked to stop at her ankles.

" Hey why don't you let me help you look around the store for what you need? I'm sure I can be of great help."

" Would you mind? Cause I'm not really sure of what a lot of the stuff here is."

" You do know that's a frying pan right?"

" Well I know stuff like that but I don't know what a lot of the fruits and vegetables are and I can't read Japanese so…" She gives a smile and holds a hand up and bends it in a 'take it easy' like gesture.

" Well don't worry about it, I can read Japanese; though i'm surprised you know how to speak it so fluently."

" I kind of wonder about that myself."

" Ok lets get this shopping thing going shall we?"

So the masculine lady helped me shop for some basic supplies like toilet paper, trash bags, utensils. The lady helped bring some clarity to the different foods that were here. She told me shopping here was expensive so she helped me shop within the markets though I didn't have much money left. We separated from each other and then I ended up getting kind of lost as I went through Konoha's streets. I accidentally took a wrong turn and ended up walking into a dead end alley way.

" Oops went the wrong way." I turn around and find two men standing in the alley corner and they were walking toward me. My heart started to race within my chest as I realized this was bad news.

" So, I heard you had a lot of money." I jumped and turned quickly away from the masculine voice behind me.

" Holy shit!" I see a tall man in white robes and long brown hair, he had a sick smile that disturbed me. I back up from him and I bump into something else. I turn around and it's the other two men wearing the same robes.

" Now why don't you hand over your money and your valuables." I hold up a hand and I say

" Ok I'll do it just don't hurt me."

" That won't be necessary." I recognize the voice as being a deep woman voice with a serious tone; but the two men block my view from seeing the lady.

" And who are you supposed to be?"

" I'm the one who's going to kick your ass."

" Ha! Boys, get her." I'm suddenly pulled close to the man and I see them walk away from me to whoever was at the edge of the alley way.

Two people seemingly come out of nowhere and land kicks to the men's skulls. Then the rough hold on me was suddenly removed from me and I could hear the hit of two things colliding. I'm launched forward from the sudden movement and then I'm suddenly in someone's arms.

" Whoa, I got you!" I look up and I see a young teenager with long black hair, green eyes, and light skin.

I was about to comment on how thankful I was for having them save me when I saw that both of the other party were the exactly the same as the other person. I look between the two quickly and ask.

" How the hell did that happen?"

" What? All you have to say is a line like that? ' How the hell did that happen?'"

" Well I was going to say something about that when I saw those other two looking identical and then you look identical to them…"

" Those are just my clones." I am filled with disbelief and surprise.

" Clones?" I turn around thinking that the one behind me was actually a different person but they were identical with the person who held me up. I look back to the girl who caught me and I take a moment to see their similarities.

She's wearing a light green robe vest and wearing a fishnet looking shirt just underneath she wore plain shorts and had the unmistakable light yellow pouch on her left along with a dark blue box on the same leg.

" Are they real?" I see that the copies of the woman were securing the men; I walk passed the woman in front of me to the copy on the right and was about to poke one to see it was tangible.

" Boy you really are a foreigner, their just chakra constructs." The clones started to protest and she argued with them to calm them down all I could really make out is that they disagreed with her.

" How do you know I'm a foreigner?"

" Well for one your cloths are outlandish, two we talked before and I helped you shop for stuff." I furrowed my brow with confusion.

" I am pretty sure we've never met before." Suddenly a puff of smoke appeared around her and when it left it revealed the same short black haired woman that helped me not to long ago.

" Whoa, what the fuck just happened?"

" I'm using a Genjutsu, of course you probably don't know what that is. So basically i'm creating an illusion to change my appearance." Another puff of smoke happens and I find myself seeing the long black haired woman who had saved me from being mugged.

" Wow, I've never seen a Genjutsu before; nor have I seen actual clones before." The woman who caught me furrowed her brow.

" Is 'nor' a word from your language?"

" Yes, yes it is." I find myself remembering I still haven't thanked her and so I bow to her.

" Thank you for rescuing me!"

" Hey, its no problem. I suppose you don't know about the city life do you?"

" I've been in a city before, I've just never had this problem before."

" Well, there's only one thing I can do about that." I found myself not only curious but reluctant of her help.

" And that is what exactly?" She grows a smile on her face and enthusiasm runs off her easily.

" We're going to be friends!" My eye brows raise in surprise and then I find myself having to ask her.

" Really? I mean you don't have to do that…" ' But I really need a friend…' Last thing on my mind was having someone tangible that I could talk to let alone a friend.

She has this widening grin on her face as she says.

" That is true; but I want to. I like you anyway so there ya go!" She walks up to me and puts her arm around my neck in a side hug.

" You and me are going to be good friends!" ' Are you crazy?' The thought was not my own and I couldn't figure out at first why I wasn't apposing this development until I realized as we stood there that I wanted a friend and that this was a blessing from God or who ever ruled this world. That train of thought brought a hesitant smile on my face; because even though I was nervous and scared this did not seem like a bad idea.

" Ok. I'll do it." She brings me closer to her for a moment then lets go. I turn to her and she holds out a hand.

" My name is Kiwikawa Myuzaki!" I take her hand and reply.

" My name is Samantha Porter." She tilts her head with confusion.

" So your name is Porter?" I realize my mistake and quickly go to fix it.

" No, my first name is Samantha and my last name is Porter." She tilts her head again and says.

" Is it normal to introduce yourself that way?"

" Yea in English we introduce with first name then last name." She hummed and then one of her clones walk up to her.

" Boss, we got the men secured."

" Good! Now I just have to turn them into the Station."

" Station?"

" Ah," she places a hand behind her head in a sheepish gesture.

" My mission was to secure these delinquents and turn them into the Security Station."

" Oh, you better go do that. I wouldn't want these guys running the streets."

" Well have a good day Samantha I'll stop by your place when I'm off duty."

" How are you going to do that?"

" Lets just say I can be in more than one place." Her and her clones jump and I watch with awe as they went high enough to reach the two floored building roof and disappeared from sight.

As I turned back to the alley entrance and continued walking home my mind lingered on the potentially dangerous event and how I had made a friend out of her. Now my only problem is: how am I going calm myself when the reality of this event really sinks in?

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So your at the end of the chapter, and here is what conserns I've had with this chapter.

Should I expain more on the help samantha gets on shoping with the helpful citizen? ( Aka Myuzaki) like describing it or should I actually leave it and mention some of it later within the book?

Also did I do well on the fighting scene? ( I personally think its crappy but I haven't written one in a long time so...) Can some of you give me some feedback on that too?

Any helpful critism is welcome as long as your not giving me flames. Thats not helpful, its being rude and unconsiderate. How do you expect me to be a better writer unless you tell me what I did wrong? Don't just tell me it sucks and then not suggest any helpful changes.

In any case I hope you enjoyed this chapter and look forward to the next one! :D


	8. Warnings of Organizations & Indulgences

Holy Hell, I am so sorry that this chapter took so long! I want to apologize if this chapter is horrible because I was having a lot of dificiulty and I'm going to unofficially call this chapter ' the chapter from hell'. I am so sorry if this chapter is not appealing I couldn't stand working on this chapter any longer So Here it is! I wont promise that there wont be more chapters like this but I will apologize for the hellish time period it takes to work them! Please enjoy what you can of this chapter and bear with me as I produce more chapters.

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Living with schizophrenia can be a living hell. I was reminded of this as I walk home.

' God did you see that man? He was going to hurt us!'

' No duh sherlock.' I mentally replied.

' Did you see how beefy that guy was?'

' That man was not beefy.' I force myself to mentally say. I remember the man being taller than me by a good foot and a half and wearing a white robe like shirt. The way he had held my arm in his grip was something that has been plaguing my mind.

In fact the whole ordeal with that gang could have done to me and what they were trying to do was plaguing me. And yet my voices and/or personalities seemed pretty fine with what happened.

' Not the bad guy! The cat meat seller!'

" It's the dog meat seller that was heavy, not the cat seller." I mutter under my breath.

' Yea that guy was fat!' I couldn't believe this voice. How could they forget our own situation?

" If you haven't noticed we're kind of fat too."

' Not as big as that lub of lard.' Another voice says this who was feminine, serious sounding, and had a semi deep voice for a woman. I had to force my own thoughts to ring through the fog of mental static that has been forming in my mind.

' Its 'tub of lard' and that is very rude.' I navigated through the crowd trying to look like a normal person.

" Having schizophrenia sucks…" I say quietly to myself.

' What would you do without me?' A particularly perky female voice said this within my mind. At this I can't help but think there was sadistic sarcasm within her words.

' Us,' I heard Sakura say, ' There's more than one person in here.'

' Actually you should say 'we' because that sounds better.' I furrow my brow and say quietly.

" No it doesn't."

' How can you tell the difference between the voices and your personalities?' One voice asked me out of the blew. I naturally answer with honesty though I answer it under my breath as I was about to pass people closer than what I had been.

" I actually don't know the difference between the two…" The looks I get from the people are the same curious looks that one would get from sticking out like a sore thumb. I couldn't blame them for those looks, I mean, I do look pretty outlandish.

' So then you can't tell the difference from say: this voice," I hear a deep masculine kind of voice. "to say, this voice." The second one was soft and feminine.

' I can tell the difference between male and female voices for the most part.' I say within my mind as I pass another crowd of people.

" I just have a hard time telling the difference between same sounding voices. Like with Hinata and Nodoka, they sound almost exactly alike to me." I mutter quietly on my breath.

I've almost reached the street where the Hokage's office when I feel a surge of pressure within my mind and I cannot help but be at the mercy of my mind's ramblings. It doesn't hurt; but I start to stagger a little bit as I walk. I'm no longer sensitive to the heat and my mind becomes shot.

All I could do was walk around the Hokage building; walking past five other roads that lead away from the Hokage building down into other various districts that I for one do not care to think about.

This is how I am as I finally reach the end of the road where the Hokage's office stood. I walk the dirt street around the building passing the first five other streets I could take. I turn onto the sixth street, that is the farthest to the left and also the closest to the protective wall and there were some brown apartment buildings.

" God I wish there were cars." I mutter as I again notice the summer heat.

' You don't wish that; cars are bad.' I hear the voice Sakura say in my mind.

" Yea I know cars are bad; but still. At least I could be home in five minutes! I could be in air conditioning! I could be crashing it into things with my bad driving skills!"

' You could be gaining all that weight back that you've been losing.' she pointed out.

" Oh hush! I know, I know." After I say that I couldn't help but frown and ask

" Since when have I been losing weight?"

' After you've been starving yourself for a week.'

" I didn't do that on purpose." I mutter as I pass some people. As they moved away from me I returned to my softer voice.

" I didn't have a choice in the matter."

' Yea and you've been losing weight because of it.' I pull the bottom of my shirt outwards for a second for observation.

" I couldn't have lost a lot of weight within a week."

' But think about all of the exercise you've been doing this week.' With that thought I couldn't deny what Sakura was saying.

My pants were getting hard to fit over my hips because of how baggy they were getting. Even when I had been putting the jeans over my belly that was harder and harder to do every day. Less problems were coming from my shirt besides the occasional stares I get from children and looks I got from adults. Before this moment it had been easy to ignore the changes but now I was beginning to see that I was becoming a different person. Lightly, I could see the steps being made to change me into a different person that was no different from a plot within a story.

" Lord what are you doing?" I say as I look up at the sky. I feel within this moment a sudden sense of clarity; that this situation was not only a development of character but also an event that was preparing me for something much important.

However, much I believed this in my moment of clarity; moments later I couldn't help be a slight bit critical of my thoughts.

" Preparation from god? Maybe I'm losing my mind." I say quietly to myself.

' But,' a voice spoke ' Isn't believing that better than believing someone is putting you through hell because they can?' I agree with the voice but I do not project it; preferring that it was just a raw and speedy reply and not a fully projected thought. As much as I liked to think during these days that a writer from some other world was putting me through hell I tried not to let it control my belief over god having control over my life. Even so, it was still a very tempting thought process to explore and during this time of a bodily famine, my own fasting, it came to my mind a lot.

So as I walk home pass the different apartment buildings and house buildings I have lost much of my ability to fight back the insistence my mind made to play different voices from my childhood such as old show character words or scenes from shows and whatnot. Of course when that had started I decided to just concentrate on getting home and let my hold on my sanity wane for the few minutes that I had to walk home.

And so, I walked past more than a few streets, long blocks and tall buildings. I think there was about twelve different streets. All I can really say is that there was a lot more then I cared to count. Despite the vast diversity of Konoha's city like environment I found my way back home with little difficulty only because I remembered the locations area.

There was no real way for me to memorize the signs since I couldn't read it and I have a hard time remembering street names. I lived next to my high school and for the short time I've lived there I did not remember my address at all. All I could tell you was " Eh its right by the high school." or " Its practically right next to the high school, you remember the green house on this street? Yea that's where I live." Definitely does not help when you are trying to take important quizzes for your school or even trying to fill out an application for a college and you can only remember the last address which you had taken five years of living there to remember.

In any case I found to the end of the road and I can only look in wonder as I realize that I had walked straight pass my apartment building.

" How the hell? I was sure…" I looked back and saw the apartment five streets away and I can only grumble as I say.

" Really Sam? Really? Jeeze." I turn around and walk back up the street. The fact that I could see my apartment building from where I was amazed me because right next to it is one of the biggest buildings I've seen thus far in my time being here. It was stories apon stories tall and I couldn't help but wonder

" What the hell do they use that for?"

' They probably use that for business.' The voice Sakura replies in my mind. I furrow my eye brows and proceed to beat down that theory.

" No they don't! They don't have businesses for places that big here! I should know I watched the whole show up to the beginnings of Shibuden."

' How would you know that Samantha? You've never lived here. How would you know what happens with business here?'

" I just know!"

' Oh like that's valid credentials! Face it Sam, you know nothing about this place.'

" Hey I know some things."

' Yea like what?' Try as I might I find myself beating down every comeback as she has a point. I truthfully knew nothing of this place. And as I was about to let her win that argument I thankfully remember something that just happened today.

" Genjutsu actually exists." boy did that turn her wheel! She says

' and what else?'

" You can actually create living clones, like shadow clones are real man. So I know some things!"

' But you don't know a lot.'

" Yea and? That doesn't mean I can't theorize what's here and what's not here ya know." I furrowed my brow again and asked.

" Why are you against me?" I could almost hear an audible sigh.

' I'm not against you Sam, I'm just trying to help you not make assumptions.' As she says this I feel myself defense deflate and I can't help but apologize

" Jeez I'm sorry."

She smiles within my mind and I hear.

' Its ok Sam.'

Thankfully as this conversation was going on I did not meet anyone else on the road so I did not make myself look like a crazy person to anyone. The walk back up to my apartment was mostly silent as I found myself being self berating and trying not to pass my apartment again. It did not stop me from panicking. I couldn't help but think I went down the wrong road or I had actually got myself lost in the city.

To my relief I really do find my apartment five streets back like I thought it was. By now I'm ready to just soak in a cold bath because I'm overheated and not only am I thirsty my bladder is telling me to run to the bathroom.

So I curse as I go up the stairs and find myself getting frustrated as I try to open my door.

" Hey how's it going?" I hear as I enter the home.

" Bathroom." I don't even stop to say hi to the Hallucination Sakura I go straight to the bathroom. And while I could hear some sort of reply It did not matter as the relief my bladder demanded. Of course once I was out of the bathroom. I was much better equipped to speak to her.

" So I'm better now." I turn back to the living room where I last saw her.

" Hi, I'm sorry about that."

' No it fine. How are you doing Samantha?'

" I'm dying of a heat stroke and I'm pretty sure my stuff is about to die from being in the heat too long. But otherwise I'm doing fantastic!" I give one of my cheeky smiles, which is me smiling widely and exaggerating my happy look on my face, and I gave a quick thumbs up.

I quickly go grab my backpack and take it into the kitchen. Despite her attempt I could only hear incoherent sound from her as I did this.

' Did you hear what I say Sam?'

" No I didn't I wasn't paying attention."

' How did it go while you were shopping.' by this time I'm surprised by the clarity I was able to hear her as I have had a tendancy to disbelieve the words were actually hers or anyone elses for that matter. The reason being as I would litterally answer for them instead of letting them answer. While I knew this was bizarre and completely out of the bounds of logic I could not mentally change what my subconscious has deemed normal. So while I struggled to keep some sanity it was a very hard battle and it hasn't been a full week yet.

" The shopping trip went pretty good. I got some fruit and veggies to try out and some seasonings. I got salt and pepper…I did get some eggs and a good five pound bag of rice. I met this lady who saved my ass from these thugs that cornered me."

' You got mugged?' The hallucination Sakura sounded pretty shocked.

" Well I was about to get mugged and this girl who used a Genjutsu when we first met saved my ass and wants to be my friend. I think her name was Myuzaki something or another I don't know. I'm ok, and she's going to come visit me later. However the hell she's going to do that is beyond me." I pulled out the eggs and the rice bag and place them on the counter.

' you know that's dangerous right?' I heard a soft slightly high pitched voice of either Nodoka or Hinata. I couldn't tell but I still answer to her question. I go to put the eggs in the fridge I have as I reply.

" What, having a stranger want to be my friend after saving my life? I need friends where I can get them." There was of course protest from them and myself in my head and I defended myself saying.

" I'm weary about this too ok? But I don't have much of a choice right now." I hear a knock on the door and I mutter.

" Who could that be?" As I walked over to the door I was hit with a sudden fit of dread and fear that made me falter. ' What if it's people the Hokage sent to take me to an asylum?' that fearful thought froze me as I was about to open the door. I stand there with my hand just a few inches from the door knob. I stand there helpless in my fear until I hear another series of knocks on the door. Suddenly my fear is gone and I become someone else. I open the door and see a flash of two hulking men taking me into custody to the asylum. I instead open the door to see my neighbors; the old lady Mitoko and the middle aged woman who's name slips my mind. I couldn't help but feel nervous.

" Samantha, we need to talk to you."

" Oh ok, come in." I open the door to them and both of them refused saying.

" No, thank you but it will only take a moment." The older woman of the two furrowed her brow and I found reason to fear the worst.

" We've been hearing you yelling early in the morning since you've got here and would like for that to stop." I felt very sheepish and apologized. ' I guess it wasn't in my head.'

" I'm sorry about that. I haven't meant to wake anybody up." The older lady continues.

" I hope you are aware that there are people who hunt down others like yourself and take it to personal extremes." I blinked my eyes and asked worried.

" What do you mean?"

" I think that this would be better taken inside." I open my home to them and close the door behind them.

" Listen Samantha, we normally never tell people about how Asami has other people inside her. It was a miss comunication on our spot because we had never expected someone to be so open about it." I suddenly remember hesitantly that the other woman was named Naomi.

" We really need you to keep it a secret."

" Ok, is there something your not telling me?" At this point I could not explain my own words even if I had wanted to.

" There are a group of people who think people like our Asami are defective and there for need to be punished or in this case torchered to gain their sanity back."

" Oh my god, you serious?"

" They call themselves Uguisu Tankyu-sha." I was confused with the sudden lack of translation and couldn't help but want to ask its meaning but refrained.

" So what do they do?"

" We only know rumors of the group but we do know they seek to take people with difficulties like yours or Asami and they usually never return." This did frighten me a lot more than I could comprehend.

" So what should I do?"

" How many people have you told about your mental state?"

" Only the Hokage and," The younger woman burst with disbelief.

" You told the Hokage? How did this happen."

" Well I," Mitoko put out a hand to stop me.

" It does not matter, what matters now is you keep your disorders to yourself. Don't trust anyone that you know with the information. Sometimes people who say are your friends turn out to be your worst enemy.

" I believe that full heartedly; but isn't there something being done about this Organization?"

" Not that we know of. So it is best to take extreme caution." I nod and ask.

" Thank you. If you don't mind me asking; why did you warn me about these people? I don't mean to be rude but we don't exactly see eye to eye." Matoko's eyes slowly closed and she took a deep breath.

" We are not as harsh as you think we are. And we are not so short sighted as to leave loose ends to lead to Asami. However we have been listening to your chatter and became worried that you would bring the Uguisu Tankyu-sha apon our door."

" Oh. I'm sorry. If I had known…" Naomi pipped right up.

" Oh don't be sorry! If you had known we wouldn't have this conversation!" Despite being cheerful sounding I found myself shrinking back into a guilt tripping mind state.

" Now that you know, you would do best to keep your chatter to a quieter level. Or perhaps its best to not chatter at all." At that moment I found myself thinking there was something fishy with her words. ' She's using the fear tactic to get what she wants.' Believe it or not however much I wanted to deny her words right there I could not for the fact that she may not have been lying.

" Before you go, could you tell me what that group's name means?" Naomi answers.

" Uguisu is a bird that lives around here during the summer but you never really see it. And Tankyu-sha is the word for 'seeker'."

So we say our goodbyes to each other and I go back to putting my food in the fridge and my other supplies in the cupboards; Such as bowls and plates as well as my garbage bags and other supplies. I did not get very much of anything so I still only had enough food to last me a few days or longer. I'm not actually sure if I am guessing the right time.

In any case after I had put the food away I ended up cooking an omelet and enjoyed eating a somewhat nice little meal. After that I once again put myself to training my body for the upcoming life of training to become a Shinobi. Even when I motivated myself with the fear of danger I could not help my glee that I was really going to learn how to fight and be like the noble Shinobi of this village even when I knew that their life was far from noble most of the time.

Inspite of this the training put me into a better mood. Or perhaps it was the food? Whatever the case I trained in that living room until another knock issued on my door. When I opened it Naruto stood there asking me to go to the park with him again. I went to the park with him and learned that lots of children and adults would quietly remove themselves from his presence. Either by the childrens parents or their own accord I learned that Naruto really was alone if even the children would not socialize with him. So I ended up encouraging him that he would find people who would become his friends and that there were people who would support him. I also encouraged him to continue his dream even when I knew it was the luck of the draw if he did end up doing so. Seeing the potential future had plagued me with potential dangers that would occur and could only pray he does what he wants in his heart as this world was not the same as the show or books.

Lastly when I came home I found the same teenager girl who I was reminded was Myuzaki Kiwikawa. At the sight of my apartment she dragged me out to do some furniture shopping and found me some furniture Like the american tables and chairs ( they were not actually american but they were like it) she even found me a futon, a bed stand and some hangers for my closet. By the time we managed to bring everything we bought back to the apartment the sun was beginning to set.

We ended up sitting in the chairs I had bought and we both gave off exhausted sighs.

" Thanks so much for helping me move this stuff in here." I told Myuzaki she gave me a smile and dismissed my words with a hand.

" Its no problem. Having me help you out is what being friends is all about."

" So tell me about yourself Myuzaki." She looks at me with her smile and replies.

" You can just call me Myu." I gave a quick ok and she places her hands behind her head.

" Well I was born April 23 in the first reign of the Third Hokage. I'm fifteen years old. I'm a Chunin right now. I really like to train and help other people on my free time." She looks to me.

" So tell me about yourself."

" Well I was born on the 17 of January. But I don't exactly understand your guy's way of telling time so I couldn't tell you what year I was born."

" Ah its ok its just a way to keep history in context. When I say the first reign of the Third Hokage I mean I was born while the Third Hokage ruled we don't actually have years in our particular calendar because not all of the countries have been equal with us long enough to form a form of keeping track of history we all agree on. So it just makes it easier for people living in our country to record history."

" Oh, that's cool. Anyway I'm eighteen years old, I'm applying to the academy so I can at least learn to read. A lot of the time I write stories and have been attempting to practice what I know for fighting these last few days."

" So your really not a fighter huh?"

" Yea I don't normally like hurting people but I do enjoy the thrill of a fight once in awhile."

" Well looks like we're going to have to spar some time."

" You'd probably kick my ass in a heartbeat."

" Now don't put yourself down like that. If your really trying to become a Shinobi you need to have more confidence! Be proud in your abilities!" I feel shock in my body from her words since the worst critique one has is actually ones self. I try to hide this shock and correct my words.

" Sorry its really hard for me to be confident in myself when I'm like this." I gesture to my whole body and her face begins to frown.

" I hardly see what you mean when you do that."

" I'm a heavy weight person and where I come from being heavy weight is a bad thing." Stereotypically speaking I am right. I've suffered confidence issues because I'm not like the skinny woman and always seemed to be second best or the loser's choice.

" That may be offensive where your from. But here if you can afford to be heavy your living the life. Now that isn't saying living with a heavy weight is necessarily a good thing when being a Shinobi. And I'm not necessarily saying it's a bad thing." I couldn't help but feel my all ready wavering self esteme drop.

" I do know that if you really want to have a figure like mine you really need to train a lot." Having said that lights went on in my mind.

" Could you let me train with you?" She faltered a moment in her words; but she began to smile.

" Well you can train with me, but I'm not allowed to teach you anything." I tilted my head to my left with confusion.

" Why not?"

" Unless I've been trained to handle Civilian Training I cannot officially teach you how to be a Shinobi or any techniques that I know unless you become a Shinobi." I nod and smile.

" Well I don't want you to get in trouble. I just wanted someone to help me train like cardio, strength training, stuff like that."

" Well I can do that at the very least. Anything else is strictly forbidden for me to teach until you become a genin or I'm actually am qualified to train you."

" Thanks, really appreciate it!"

" We can start tomorrow if you'd like."

" What is tomorrow?"

" Tomorrow is Saturday."

" Ok, I have somewhere to go on Monday morning; but yea I can do Saturday morning. Just don't expect me to excel at first."

" Oh no worries I know you'll have a hard time keeping up with me so don't sweat it." I was unsure whether to feel insulted or grateful that she understood my physical limitations. The words of my neighbor came to mind and I couldn't help but ask her about it.

" I heard of this organization that takes people with mental troubles from families, I think. Can you tell me anything about that?" She furrows her brow and once again removes her hands from her lap and places them behind her head in what I think is her thoughtful gesture.

" Um…Well I don't know a lot. I have heard that there was a organization like that but the hokage hasn't given any intel on whether its good or bad or intel for missions that matter. That isn't to say he hasn't sent people to investigate it." I can't help but think that it didn't help me much, but the fact that she had heard about such an organization worries me. What would happen should I find myself entangled with this Organization?

" So what's got you worried about this organization?" Despite my conflict with lying I created one pretty easy.

" Oh there's someone I know with a mental disability and I was worried about them that's all." Myuzaki tilted her head and asked.

" Oh really? What's the disorder called?"

" Well, in my country, we call it schizophrenia. Its basically hearing voices and having halusinations." She looked positively surpized.

" Well we call it Seishin Bunretsu Byo/ Mind split disease." I swear as she said the name I could hear two spoken terms being said at the same time. The first I didn't understand but the second set of words I understood.

I do not mention anything of that weird occurrence to Myuzaki. I simply have her repeat herself to confirm what I heard. Then I have her go home as we were both beat. I simply eat a piece of fruit and send myself to my new futon.

As I did this the visual hallucinations of Sakura and Nodoka ended up asking if they could sleep on my futon with me. Having a heart I tell them they can which has a lot of technically unused space on my futon. And as I lay there falling asleep in the dark of my room I find myself thinking on Myuzaki's words for training and Asami's grandmother's words of the Organization.

I could only pray that time came for me to get my confirmation on my acceptance to the academy on Monday.


End file.
